Stargate SG1 The Captives Episode 1
by PuddlejumperOZ
Summary: The first Episode of the Captives takes place sometime after Ba'al's decloning and the defeat of the Ori, but are we safe
1. Chapter 1 Newcomers

**Stargate SG-1 ....The Captives Part One. **

**From General Jack O'Neill's file #671778d-99a**

The War with the Ori had been over for three years. In that time the IOA had gone public with the Stargate programme, not because their hand was forced, but Earth seriously needed defending now and with the existing partners, resources were being spread too thin. They could no longer do it alone.

Eighteen months previously the details of the SGC was delivered to the United Nations. Now, the whole world was behind the SGC, no longer exclusive to the USA, it was a joint now a joint facility among many nations of the world whose aim was to identify and hopefully thwart, possible threats to both the Milky Way and Pegasus Galaxies.

_At a top secret facility, housed in an enormous hangar within the Boeing complex in Seattle, Washington, Colonel Sam Carter, General Jack O'Neill, along with the rest of SG1, were presenting a gathering of international leaders, scientists and of course the press, an update on the new space platforms currently being introduced. Vala, Teal'c and Mitchell handed out document folders to those gathered, Sam went on explaining in her usual way, the advancements Earth had made. Jack opened up one of the folders and looked skywards, waiting for some kind of intervention, utterly bored out of his skull as usual, Jack began investigating the lint on his jacket, and hummed a tune in his mind._

**(*See Editor's note 1*)**

At the end of a rather lengthy discourse, Sam asked for questions. There was an immediate eruption of voices, all wanting to be heard. O'Neill could see trouble looming, so he stepped up to the mike, excused himself to Sam and took over. He pointed to one member of the press.

"You sir, with the green tie." He said. He pointed out a rather unsavoury looking character, perhaps forty five or so, wearing an overly loud jacket with his equally loud red shirt and green tie. The sight of it made Jack's head swim.

The fellow in question, a tag on his coat, denoting he was from Consolidated Press, stood and said bluntly. "Ah General, can the Colonel answer us this, with all these ships, of immense power, what is to stop those who control them from turning on the weaker nations of Earth and coercing membership in this Alliance by any means at your disposal?"

A minister from one of the smaller countries echoed the enquiry with "Hear, hear."

Sam swallowed, she expected a query such as this. But before she could answer, Richard Woolsey, stepped up to the podium.

"Perhaps that is a question we can cover later Mr. Strickham. He said. "We are a little short on time right now and I'd like Dr Daniel Jackson to give his review on the current state of the Stargate Alliance. Dr Jackson if you would."

Richard motioned for Daniel to step up to the podium., Vala elbowed him rather severely in the ribs. At the same time both Jack and Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Mr. Strickham though was not pleased, he would press this matter further. Daniel's speech was much shorter than Sam's,yet was probably met with more awe and disbelief than hers. All these years the Stargate Programme has been conducting these relationships and conflicts on Earth's behalf. The United States and the IOA had a lot to answer for, some believed a time a reckoning was to come. The delegates studied Daniel's file much more thoroughly than Sam's

**(*See Editors Note 2*)**

* * *

A little over fourteen months after the final Ori defeat and Ba'al's host having been relieved of his master there was a sudden activity at the Australian Defence Headquarters, Canberra. Along a long corridor, a plain door stood ajar, Overseas Combat Ready Teams Commanding Officer, was the sign above. Inside the office, a man in his middle to late fifties sat at a polished desk, in the summer day uniform of an Australian Naval Commodore, sat at a polished desk..

The phone rings abruptly and he picks it up."MacGregor here." He said sternly.

A young American female's voice is on other end. "Commodore MacGregor, you don't know me, my name is Henderson, Captain Julie Henderson, USMC sir."

Mac scratches at a scar on his cheek , then answers. "No Captain, I don't believe I do know you. What can I do for you, more to the point, how did you get this number?"

She dodged his question and went straight to her reason for calling him. "Sir, I believe your son is still alive, he did not go MIA in Iraq. You must speak with your Defence Minister and ask him about Stargate Command in Colorado, it's called Area 52 by the Pentagon."

Mac's eyes widened and he stared angrily at the phone hand piece. " What the bloody hell. Is this some kind of joke young lady, cause I'm not bloody laughing!"

"No sir, I'm serious. I know because I am engaged to Ben. Just ask Sir, that's all I can say: except that Area 52 is presently under the command of Generals Jack O'Neill and Hank Landry. Please sir, please help me." She hung up the phone quickly.

Mac replaces the receiver angrily and looks at a photo on his desk. The closer one was of his wife and two children. The other one was of twelve officers sitting in front of a F15C Eagle. In the front row middle, is a younger Lt. Commander William MacGregor, seated next to a Major Jack O'Neill. The Inscription plate read, International Air Staff Course, Wright-Patterson AFB 1987. He knew Jack O'Neill well and he also knew about 'Area 52'. Something the former Prime Minister had briefed him on a few years ago, about _'Full Disclosure of the Stargate Programme'_. The PM's words echoed in his ears. _"Those bloody Yanks have had this thing since 1945 and chose to tell no one, not even one their closest allies. Even the bloody Russians, Chinese, Frogs and Poms knew before us, the bastards. And to think the little shrub had the hide to try and buy me off, with a barbeque at his bloody ranch, shake my hand and say we were the best of friends."_

Since then though, Australian and personnel from many other countries had been fully integrated into the Stargate programme, more so in Atlantis and on the new _Daedalus_ class and other ships. Very few though, had made it to Stargate Command as part of an SG team, (except for Atlantis) that Mac knew of, except perhaps his son. Politics, he hated it.


	2. Chapter 2

Inside the gateroom. Three months after the Seattle conference.

An SG team readies to enter Stargate. Jack O'Neill from the control room gives orders, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c are standing nearby. Sam Carter approaches quietly, unseen from the level below.

"SG Twelve you have a go! Major Swane, may I remind you that this is only a recon. In and out, do your survey Major and nothing else ok!"

Swane. "Yes sir!"

Jack then turns away and head to his office, Sam lingers back and watches the team depart. As she does so, the last one to enter the event horizon, a young female Marine officer turns briefly, Sam takes note that she is wearing her name chest patch 'Henderson. J'. Sam was about to go to Jack's office, but determined otherwise, for the moment. She remembered Cassie, and decided to go home instead. _Tomorrow's another day_ she thought to her self.

Jack just puts down the phone as Sam Carter knocks on the door.

"Yes, what is it?" Jack is little perturbed. Then he looks up in surprise to see his old friend standing there. "Sam! What the hell are you doing here. Aren't you supposed to be in Washington?"

"Yes and no. I'll fill you in later, but I have to ask you sir, weren't you supposed to be retiring...again? But in any case sir, right now you've got a problem!"

"Tell me about it. I'm gonna have a office full of em' shortly...and the retirement well, you know I um..So what's the big deal?"

"I just came up past the control room, I thought I'd save Walter the trouble, sir, it's SG 12, they're eight hours over due sir."

"Sam a lot of teams go over, can you remember how many times we did ?"

"A lot sir, but this was a two hour op, no more. Major Swane is a professional sir, even if he is British, there has got to be something wrong."

"Why does it always have to be 'there's got be something wrong' to these situations. We're not here to push the panic button every time a team is overdue. But having said that see if you can raise them through the MALP" Then something just occurred to him. "Anyway, why are you here Sam. Who's running your office, when did you get here anyway?"

Sam was about to answer when Teal'c pops his head in the door. " We have done that O'Neill. There appears to be no response from Major Swane, or any of his team. They may be out of range."

"Oh Teal'c old buddy how ya goin, nice of you to drop by." Jack says with his usual turn of wit, he had only seen his friend not fifteen minutes before.

Sam looks weirdly at O'Neill. "Sir you don't understand, the recon area is only five kilometres from the gate on P5X 449 and it was and old Goa'uld held planet sir."

"It was, past tense. Most of them are dead a long time, or on in hiding, or running or just eating cake; but anyway I get the message Sam. Have them send a UAV, see if they can find em' that way. Report back to me as soon as we know anything, if you want to that is, you're not 'officially' here as far as I know!"

Sam turns to leave, "Yes Sir." She pauses, "Yesterday sir, I got in yesterday. The IOA asked me to appraise the Independence before she goes into service. I've got six weeks to kick back so I thought I'd come here first. Frankly sir I'm glad; I missed this."

Jack looked at her squarely. "Well we're happy you did miss it Sam, and welcome back, I guess. And yes I was about to retire finally...again. Though some folks who shall remain nameless in Washington, insisted I hold off for a while. Something about transition. It looks like Landry may well get to retire before me, he's already two years passed his time."

Sam gave him a puzzled look "General Landry is sixty seven?.

"Yeah. The two of us have got a bit of a wager on it though, who goes first."

"Oh..um well yes sir." She leaves still slightly puzzled.

Teal'c re-enters the room and closes door. "O'Neill you seem to be not yourself at this moment." Teal'c sits in a chair opposite, which Jack thought unusual, Teal'c rarely sat.

"No, no, I'm fine Teal'c. We have one of the newer international teams joining us today and you know my feelings about foreign military crawlin' all over the SGC. Besides I got used to my office in Washington, why on earth did Landry choose now to take an extended leave...and with Bra'tac along with him as well. And now Carter turns up. Something's going down T', mark my words."

"Indeed O'Neill. General Landry though, said you were getting 'rusty' I believe was the word he used. Master Bra'tac also expressed the desire to see more of Earth, he as well is in need of a..vacation" He used the word awkwardly.

"Rusty you say?"

"Yes indeed. But O'Neill have we not had the Russian, French, English, Chinese and a few other teams here for some time now. And are there not many nationalities in place at Atlantis and on the 310's?"

" Yeah, yeah, Teal'c that's true I suppose. We would've had to deal with more of them sooner or later anyway. But Australians T, they're another matter. You'll see my friend, you'll see."

Teal'c gives Jack one of his raised eyebrow looks. " I see."

A knock on the door, disturbs Jack's momentary peace.

"Christ what now. Come in."

Daniel Jackson open's the door but does not enter. " Jack, you've got company. There's twelve Aussie's coming up to the briefing room right now." Daniel disappears.

"What are Ozzy's O'Neill?"

"That's the Australians brother Teal'c, damn trouble, nothing but trouble."

"They are formidable warriors O'Neill, this much I know." He bows slightly proud of his knowledge of peoples of the Tauri.

"You watch to many movies T." But in his mind Jack had to agree, if he had to have anyone other than his own watching his back, it would be an Aussie, despite their lack of respect for almost everything. _'Mmm, a bit like myself._' The thought went through his mind.

"Off world activation, repeat Off world activation." Comes through on the P.A.

"Oh screw this. This is not my day Teal'c." Jack says "Let's go and see what this is first."

In the Control room. Mitchell and Vala are already there.

"What've we got Walter?" Jack asks.

"Getting an audio signal sir, it's Lt. Dreznov."

"Patch it through."

Radio transmission crackles "This is Lt. Dreznov, do not send any teams through, repeat, do...not send...through, over."

Jack speaks into mike. "Dreznov, this is O'Neill, what is your situation, over."

"Sir I'm transmitting through the MALP, I managed to..dial, but was..umped by..Jaf... I...in visual range...there are about fifty to sixty Jaffa...heavy staff canons...over."

"Lieutenant, any chance we can get a UAV through ?" Mitchell asks.

"Maybe sir, better...it's...solid though."

"Understood Lieutenant, try and hold your position for as long as you can, over."

"Yes Colonel, Dreznov, over".

"Walter get Siler to set up a UAV and make a sweep of that gate area asap"

O'Neill "What do you make of that?"


	3. Chapter 3

"I know that planet. It used to belong to Athena when she was aligned with Cronus. I don't think there is any significant value to it now, unless it's strategic. Besides muscles (she thumps Teal'c on the arm), shouldn't the Jaffa be our allies now?" Vala said.

Teal'c was pensive for a moment "Indeed, except for some few who cling to the old ways. Unless another Goa'uld has surfaced after all this time. It's believed a great many minor ones still survive"

"More bad guys eh T?" Cam gets that excited look on his face.

"It may be so." Teal'c says pragmatically.

Sam Carter comes running up the stairs "Sir, I've just gone over our previous UAV scans of P5X 449, and there was something odd we didn't pick up before." She is not out of breath, but she does seem agitated.

"Come on Colonel out with it!" Jack said a little impatiently.

"Well sir, about ten kilometres due west of the gate there appeared to be slight energy fluctuation coming from the surface. We didn't look into it before because Dr Lee said the solar activity from the planets sun was interfering with the UAV's sensors. He went over the data again just now and realised it had the same energy signature as the Ori ships, but it appears to be almost submerged with the terrain !"

"Sam did you just say Ori ship? Cause that's what I thought you said. Oh and welcome back." Cam interrupted Sam, but she smiled and nodded to him.

"Carter are you telling me that somehow some Jaffa have got their collective hands on an Ori ship and it's buried in the ground?"

"Yes sir, but it seems to be more swamp than actual ground."

"Well that would explain why the place is so heavily defended.." Vala looks at Sam fondly, like a long lost sibling. "Glad to have you with us again Samantha, we missed you."

Walter comes in to stand next to O'Neill. "Sir we've got the data from the second UAV."

"Let's have look at it then." Walter replays the results of the aerial sweep on one of the large screens. There are large Jaffa emplacements everywhere and they can clearly see the little blue dots indicating the locator implants in the SG team.

"Sir there's no way we can get them out with another team, or ten teams. Vala can they find cover for awhile?" Sam answers.

Vala studies the survey. "Yes I believe so, there's a well defended little outcrop just here." She points to a position about a kilometre east by north of the gate. "If they can make it there, they could hide for quite a while, there is water and plenty of shelter."

"Right then. Get a message to Lt. Dreznov...send it in Russian, the radios are probably being monitored."

"Dreznov was the only Russian team member on duty today sir, I'll get Jackson." Cam advises.

"Right. In the meantime we need to work out how to safely extract SG 12, Carter find out if we have any ships within range of that planet."

"Already done sir, the Victory is about four hours away." Sam said confidently.

"Good, get a message to them. They're making a detour...now to see about our new arrivals, you better all come with me."

"Do you need me as well sir?" Walter asks.

"Ah, um no Walter, you just stay here and...well, just do whatever it is you do."

"Yes sir."

O'Neill, Carter, Mitchell, Teal'c and Vala proceed upstairs and find Daniel with the Australians. Sam gives Daniel the message and he returns to the control room. There are four personnel from each of Australia's armed services, the commanding officer is a Naval Commodore. Jack breaks into a grin when he recognises William MacGregor and the surgeon captain standing next to him, Dr Anne MacGregor. But Sam Carter has a look of shock on her face.

Dr MacGregor approaches Sam and hugs her warmly. "Hello Sam, what a surprise this is."

"Sam? This is Jacobs little girl? The last time we met was...yes well it was a long time ago." Will said quietly, remembering the last time they met.

"Yes it was Aunt Anne, Uncle Mac." _(Sam has a flashback of her mother's funeral and younger versions of the MacGregor's standing there with her and her brother Mark and young Ben MacGregor, and his twin sister Catherine)_

"Carter is there something here I should know about? Oh and welcome to Stargate Command all of you. Will, Anne what the hell are you guys doing here. Not that I mind, but you know I mean...well it is a bit of a surprise isn't it?"

All the others look a bit uncomfortable at this apparently strange reunion of friends and what, relatives? Mitchell looks at Daniel just as he re-enters , who in turn looks at Vala. Teal'c as always appears himself.

"Ah Daniel, Cam, Vala and T; will you get these other nice folks settled in, I believe Carter and I have to have a conversation with the Commodore and the Captain."

"Yes sir." They look at him mysteriously.

Jack indicates toward his office, Sam follows, but the MacGregors hold back a moment; they seem to be having some sort of debate.

"No Anne, we can't ask him right out. Besides he wasn't even in command when Ben was here."

"I bloody well don't give a damn Will. He is our son and the only reason we got this detachment was because the PM was afraid you'd call him down for not telling us when he damn well knew all about this bullshit cover up we were fed. Jack will know something Will, or he'll help us find the truth at least."

"Honey I know he will, but having Sam here complicates things a little."

"How so, she's our niece for god's sake."

"Exactly. Anne she's lost her mother and Jacob dies in strange circumstances, at least that's what we were told; how do you think she'll react if she knows other family members lives are in jeopardy?"

"Mmm, not well. Plus she doesn't know about Ben...does she?"

"No...not more than we did anyway. They wrote a lot to each other you know"

"Yeah, I know."

O'Neill "Well this is cosy isn't it? Carter can you tell me why you just referred to my old friends here as Aunt and Uncle?

Sam is about to speak but Anne beats her to it. "I am Jacob Carter's younger sister. When my mother, Sam's grandmother, was expecting me, my father was killed in Korea. Mum had a young son and another child on the way; dad never had much, he was a bit of a gambler, though according to my mother a good man. Anyway, mum did not have the resources or support here in the States to raise two children, so she returned to Australia. But Dad's brother convinced mum to leave Jacob with him and his wife, which she reluctantly did. It was something she regretted her whole life."

Jack sits there totally gobsmacked. "Um ah, this...is difficult isn't it?"

"I can't see a problem, do you Sam?"

Sam looks at the wide gold shoulder bar on Mac's white shirt, then answers. "I don't think so, no...sir."

In a passage way leading to the infirmary, Teal'c and Cameron are with the four Aust. Army team members.

"So captain how did you enjoy the SGC training camp?" Cam inquires.

"Not bad sir, though it was pretty easy...at least the physical part was. I guess the hardest part was learning all about the universe we once thought we were alone in sir. And doing our training 'offworld' was a bit weird. Col. Reynolds took good care of us and the Tokra and Jaffa we met were great folks." Captain Kyle Baker, replies.

"Amen to that Captain. Wait, you said the physical part was easy?"

"We're SAS sir and the others, well two of em' are divers, top of the the ladder those are sir. And the two pliots sir had just completed an SAS survival course before this." That was all he needed to say. Sergeant Robert Fraser answered for his CO.

"Ah yes the famous SAS, I have read many stories of your unit's exploits. Both of the British and Australian. Brave warriors indeed Mitchell." Teal'c says knowingly.

The Aussies all just gave Teal'c a look of satisfaction, like predatory cats in a way.

"So Mr. Teal'c, you're Jaffa as well sir?" The young Corporal, Amy Sutton asks.

"Please corporal, just address me as Teal'c. Yes I am, but now I serve the Tauri." _(Teal'c then gives a brief discourse on the history of the Jaffa and the Goa'uld that had enslaved them for centuries and his relationship with Earth.)_

They reach the infirmary, where Vala and Daniel are there with the other Australians.

"Oh good you're just in time. Dr Lam is going to give you all a little gift." He says mischievously. Daniel says joyfully.

An Air Force Flt. Lt John Toralev has reservations. . "Not more vaccinations is it? Seemed to me the alpha site was seventy percent training and thirty percent injections." The red headed A/F-18 pilot grinned broadly.

Vala glides over to him and loops her arm through his. "You'll get used to it." Toralev grins sheepishly.

Dr Lam wheels a trolley over, a tray on top contains twelve tiny blue metallic looking capsules. Personal beacon locators, injected into a fleshy part of the body; all the Australians look at one another in a resigned kind of way.

Aboard the BB16 Victory, in the bridge. The Commander, US Naval Captain Sarah Connolly, sits uncomfortably in her seat.

"Major Chung, I want the ship cloaked the moment we drop out of hyper-space, then run a full surface scan around the gate area. Lt. Adams run a broad area search for any other ships in the area, I want to avoid getting our brand new ship scratched if possible."

Lt. Paul Adams and Maj. Leanne Chung acknowledge their commander. "Yes Ma'am."

The ship bursts out of hyper-space, immediately cloaking. The planet below looking vaguely like many others, other than three small moons orbiting...and three Hataks above the area where the gate and settlements would be.

"Captain, we've located SG12. They're grouped together not far from the gate, we can get in a bit closer and beam them aboard, if you should wish." The XO asks her boss.

"Do it. As soon as they are aboard Adams, get us out of here."

A day later back in the Gateroom. SG-7 returns from a mission, the marines leading the four Australian SASR. Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c are there to greet them.

"Well, how'd it go Baker?" Cam is the first to greet them.

"Great sir. Trees, trees and more trees. But truly sir it was good."

"Not to mention the sixteen Ori soldiers whose souls are now realising that that origin crap they were fed about ascension was just that..Crap." Marine Lt. Len Sanders replies.

"You encountered Ori Lt. Sanders?"

"Not us; these guys did." He shoved his thumb back toward the Australians. "There's still a lot of Ori stragglers out there sir, both small and large groups on many planets. But generally they've been pretty friendly. Yet just recently there's been a few groups that are showing signs of that good old Ori hostility we've come to know and love." He explains with his Kentucky drawl.

"Hostile? So, um...how did you guys take down sixteen of em'" He looked to toward the SAS group. Cam raises his eyebrow almost Teal'c like, as if the wool were being pulled over his eyes

Corporal Amy Sutton smiled and hefted her SR-98 sniper rifle and held up four fingers.

Captain Kyle Baker and Sergeant Robert Fraser just rested their arms over their M4's, each held up five fingers a piece.

Teal'c. "Fourteen." He murmured.

Lastly Trooper Alan Nguyen withdrew his para-blade and wiped it calmly on his sleeve.

All this was observed from the control room by O'Neill and Mac, the last grinning broadly and turning to Jack. "So, do you think they'll do alright Jack?"

"Oh they'll do alright Mac." He leaned toward the coms mic. "Briefing room in ten minutes Lt. Sanders.

"Yes sir!" Came a chorus of reply.

"Jack, I'll just go down and see how Sam's doing if that's alright".

"Of course Mac, go on ahead."

Back on board the Victory, with SG12 on board, all with some injuries. The vessel is in hyper-space once again.

An Airman approaches Connolly. "Ma'am, they're alive, all wounded. Major Swane is in very bad shape; Lt. Dreznov has a serious wound to his left shoulder and hand, Captain Henderson has a concussion. Corporal Aboud has a busted right knee and burns to her back and chest; except for the Major, the others will be ok ma'am. Lt. Dreznov has something to show you Captain, he thinks it is important."

"Infirmary two?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Sarah enters infirmary, she pauses to look at the Royal Marine Major, Swane; she remembers meeting him once or twice before. She sees that his left leg is missing below the knee, his head is heavily bandaged and wonders what could have been so important on that planet for this team to have put themselves in such harms way? The airforce tech corporal is sedated, bandages cover her torso and a leg cast is on her right limb. The young Marine Capt. Henderson seems to be the least injured, though she is unconscious at this time; Sarah holds the woman's hand for a brief moment. At the last bed she approaches Lt. Alexi Dreznov, systems and communication specialist, Russian Navy.

"How are feeling Lieutenant?"

"Fine ma'am. And thankyou for saving us back there. They had made our position several times; each time we moved, they seemed to be waiting for us." He winces in pain.

"Take it easy.." She looks at the tag above his bed. "..Alexi. Take your time."

"I'm sorry Ma'am; I don't think we have much time...you must look at the film I recorded on my camera. It's in my pack..please Captain." He lapsed into a morphined induced sleep.

Back on the Victory's bridge, Sarah has Dreznov's camera plugged into a monitor. Herself and several of the bridge crew watch as the film displays what SG12 had seen.

The first images show many Jaffa guarding a work gang, sandbagging and shoring up what appears to be a large space vessel, trapped in a swamp or bog. Scanning the scene, the camera shows the work gang to be mainly human, a few Jaffa amongst them...they're all chained. Slaves. Slowly the lens pans around and focuses on one slave, you can hear Capt. Henderson's voice whispering in the background.."Over there Alexi, get a close up."

The whirring of the telephoto stops, a young man, bearded, stoops to lift another sandbag, his shoulder coming into focus, an American eagle is tattooed there. As the lens retreats, his face is revealed in detail. Angry, afraid.

Suddenly a commotion is heard near the young man. A robed figured strides his way; Jaffa guarding him. The robed figure points toward the camera lens and as he does so, his hood falls back to reveal the all too familiar face of a Prior. In the moment before the first staffblast comes toward the camera, the Prior's eyes glow in another all too familiar way, it's voice issuing commands in Goa'uld.

Lt. Adams is the first to speak, albeit softly. "What the hell...I thought all these guys were friendly. And now this, one with a Goa'uld stuck in his head?"

One of the other crew members speaks out, Master Sergeant Bob Taylor. "Captain, I know that guy. Lt. Liddel, he was with an SG team that went MIA several years ago."

The captain's eye's grow wide as she stares intently at the screen image. But only momentarily.

"Major send an encrypted message to the SGC. From the Victory. Am returning to rendezvous vector delta six tango; relay to Orion to return. Transferring cargo and personnel to Orion, delay to Atlantis. Forward message to Atlantis, apologise for said delay. Must return to Earth, priority Zulu November."

"Captain? Orion's been out and back to the Pegasus galaxy twice already Ma'am; we can't ask her to return again can we?" The XO asks somewhat anxiously.

"Can't be helped Major. This is too important to screw up relaying messages back and forth between commanders. Colonel Ellis and his crew will just have to suck it down like the rest of us. Send the message."

"Yes Captain, delta six tango, eighteen hours away Ma'am."

Back in Sam's lab at the SGC.

"Sam what's bothering you? I know we haven't seen you for a long time, but I still know my brother's daughter."

"It's complicated Aunt Anne. You...you should know a lot more about dad, how he died and everything, but it's really too much. So many people I've gotten close to over the years...well to have you both here just frightens me. Mark was all the real family I thought I had left and I always knew he would be safe and I was content with that. Now..now you're here, it changes everything. In my job and all that this base entails; well I just don't think it's right that I have to be looking over my shoulder, worried about someone I care for because of my job." She was visibly upset.

"Sweetheart, look kid, in the line of work we do, including you, there's always an element of fear we carry. Until the day we stop doing this, we'll always carry it. I thought Anne, Ben and Cate would always be safe at home and God willing, I'd go home to them in one piece each time, after my last job was done. But Ben joined up, we couldn't stop that, we didn't try to stop him, as I'm sure Jacob would not have tried to stop you."

Sam looked at him in a way she would have looked at her father when he was saying something profound.

"In the end, when the second Gulf war started, Anne was recalled from the reserves to full-time duty and my fears came to haunt me all at once...But you know Sam? The man upstairs just gave me a little push and I faced my fears, as hard as that was. We're still here."

"What about Ben?"

The MacGregor's looked at one another.

"He could be alive somewhere Sam, but it's not Iraq or Iran or even Afghanistan."

"What do you mean? I know he was on exchange with our Marines here in the States and Ben wrote to me often from his base in Florida; he was going to see me...but then I got the news from a friend of mine at the Pentagon, the unit Ben was attached to had been sent on a special mission to the Middle East. But that was before the second Gulf, that was the last I heard of him. I wanted to call you both but I got involved in something...here, and the by time I got back, things just got so crazy for next few years. I'm so sorry to you both."

"It's not your doing Sam. But there's more. We know where Ben went missing from. And yes it was well before Gulf two." Mac replies.

"You do?"

"Here." Anne said bluntly.

"What, you're joking." She saw the look in their faces. "You're not are you? But how, we had no foreign personnel here at that time, except for scientists who were mostly American citizens in any case."

"We did some digging Sam." They wouldn't tell her of their inside source. "Ben swapped ID's with a marine Lieutenant of the same name, they were near the same age, size, even looked a little similar. The other's in Ben's unit were in on it; the other fellow actually got shipped out to Iraq and did go missing. That was the first screw up. But somehow Ben managed to get all the way to America's most secret posting and no one ever back checked him. Screw up number two. Your cousin has an amazing talent for digging Sam "

"I never saw him here Aunt Anne. Surely at some time I would have. And how did Cate find out anyway." She asks

"She's ah, in a government department Sam, attached to the diplomatic corps, and besides would you have recognised Ben. You hadn't seen him since he was six or seven and photo's exchanged over the years just would not hold up in the flesh. He avoided you Sam and from what we managed found out, he was only here six months when he went missing." Mac said, hoping not to give too much away about his daughter, who in truth was an ASIS operative.

The wall pager sounds. "Colonel Carter, General O'Neill would like to see you in the briefing room. He asks if the Commodore would come also."

Sam looks at her Aunt. "It's ok Sam, William, go. I wanted to see Dr Lam anyway. I'll catch up later...go."

They left together, in the hall Sam speaks into her personal coms unit. "Tell the General we're on our way."

"Do you have any idea what this might be about?"

"Probably something to do with SG-7 and your SAS troopers."

"SG-16 Sam, that's the tag I overheard your Colonel Mitchell give them."

"Oh, yeah right."

In the Briefing Room, Jack O'Neill is standing near a monitor, SG-7 and 16 are seated, along with Mitchell, Vala, Daniel and Teal'c. Sam and Mac enter from side staircase; Walter Harriman stands near O'Neill.

"Thank you for joining us Carter, everything ok?"

"Yes sir." She gives him a 'Don't ask look.'

Jack just shakes his head and carries on.

"Good. Lt. Sanders give your report. It's alright son..go on."

Lt. Sanders stands. "Well it was only to be a simple orientation for the new guys. Meet and greet sort of thing, to P9K 778, one of the worlds the Ori had converted, but the folks there since found their way back, or so we thought." He picked up the remote for the monitor. "We were supposed to meet with Hela the town mayor I suppose you could call her. She wasn't at the gate so we just figured she was late, we decided to head out and probably find her along the way." He clicked the monitor on.

"Continue please Lieutenant."

"We were about three clicks away from the town, in the thick of the forest, when Corporal Sutton here said she could smell smoke. I didn't question it sir, I know how good SAS training is. Baker suggested we split into two units and I agreed. We fanned out and when my team came to the ridge overlooking the town we found this." He pressed the remote start button.

What they all saw was where a sizeable town once stood was now nothing but rubble, still burning. The camera panned about and zoomed in...bodies everywhere. The camera replays the events from SG-7's perspective.

"Next, we heard energy weapons and 16's fire fight. By the time we got there it was over, Baker and his team were already searching the bodies. They found this." He held out a small silver/ grey sphere.

"What would Ori soldiers be doing with a Goa'uld long range communication device?" Vala asks.

"Good question. Sanders..."

"Yes sir. But at this point Captain Baker should fill us in, if that's alright sir?"

"Of course. Captain." The big Australian stands.

"We spread out through the trees, Cpl Sutton went to look for high ground. The rest of us waited for Sutton to find her position and give us a mark. About three minutes later she gave a coded squawk on the coms that indicated hostiles about three hundred metres ahead, bearing left of us, toward the gate." The captain waited for a response, but they all just sat and Jack nodded to him a sign to continue.

"Not knowing for sure if they were actually hostiles or not, Fraser and Nguyen split from my position and dispersed into the trees. I continued straight on until I had a visual on Sutton's 'hostiles'. About a hundred metres away I saw the encampment of 'Ori' soldiers; they'd not at this point detected my approach sir." He stopped.

"Why'd you do that Captain?"

"Well sir, I needed to know their intent. True they did turn out to be hostile but at this point I did not want to be responsible for killing people who might just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time sir."

"Captain, how did you find out they were actually hostiles?"

"I called to them to drop their weapons, stand and face me."

"What all sixteen of them, or couldn't you see them all?" Daniel, looks at him curiously.

"Sutton was giving us a head count and dispersal the whole time, once she was in situ, sir."

"So how did they react Captain?" Sam said to him.

"As expected Ma'am. They shot at me!" He said calmly.

"That was risky standing out in the open like that, or stupid." Vala weighs the story somewhat with caution.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but there was one thing we learnt at the beta site; energy based weapons were about as precise as spitting in the wind at anything beyond seventy odd metres or so. Baker knew what he was doing Ma'am." The dark young woman said respectfully.

"Alright then Baker, you can fill in the details in your report. Now about this Goa'uld communicator? Anyone, guesses?" Jack said.

"Sir, they weren't all Ori sir. At least six of em' were Jaffa." Lt. Sanders adds to the tally.

Everyone in the room, except the two SG teams just stared at him.

Jack cleared his throat and dismissed them all, wishing all this would just go away and he could go fishing.

A little later back in Sam's lab. O'Neill, Mitchell and Sam are there.

"Well Carter?"

."We've done a lot of research on these things and we've managed to extrapolate a program that..."

"Sam stop. I just wanna know if you can make it work without the other guys know you're calling?"

"Yes sir. It has a matrix memory built into it, sort of last caller number if you will. Though they are aligned to only one receiver, we can see who that person was, without them knowing."

"Thank you." Jack says in exasperation.

Sam attaches two leads to the device. An image is replayed on her computer monitor. A familiar looking figure speaking in Goa'uld.

"That is a Prior, unless I'm still in my bed dreaming sir." Cam said candidly.

"You don't say." Jack replies in his usual manner. "Does anyone know what he's saying, my Goa'uld's a little hazy."

A voice from near the door answers his question. "He's asking if the target has been eliminated, sir."

The three in the room turn to see Cpl. Sutton standing there.

"Corporal?"

"Oh I'm sorry for interrupting Ma'am. I was looking for Dr. Jackson when I overheard the General from the hall."

"Do I speak that loudly Carter? Don't answer." He adds.

"Come on in corporal."

The young woman approaches the workbench.

"How'd you know what this guy was saying?" Cam looks at the small woman.

"I'm a linguist sir. All the Australians coming here were selected for their abilities other than combat skills sir. At the beta site, I studied Goa'uld and Ancient for the whole time I was there."

"You must be a quick learner, or you didn't have much spare time...ah Amy isn't it?"

"Yes Ma'am. It's a skill I've always had, besides Major Danska and the Tokra people were good teachers. And no Ma'am, I didn't have any spare time...I figured I needed to learn as much as I could in the three months we had there."

Jack ignored the present conversation. "Then he must have been speaking about the town. But why? Why not just take over like always with these guys." He looked genuinely bothered.

"It wasn't just the town sir. He wanted to know if all the inhabitants had been destroyed as well." Amy wanted them to know the full extent, which had Cam intrigued.

"Well this just gets crazier by the minute. Why go to all that trouble, and what value did it have to kill all those people?"

"We've seen it before Cam. No witnesses. Somebody is planning something big for that planet. These are not Ori tactics, they're Goa'uld." Sam spread her hands for emphasis.

At that moment Daniel and Vala enter. They both start to speak as one, but Daniel gives Vala that disapproving look. "It's a staging base. After Abydos was eliminated, that planet is the next closest to Earth."

Walter pops his head in. "Sir we have a deep space transmission from Victory."

"What's it say Walter?" The master sergeant reads out the message.

"Sounds bad sir. How far away is she?" Sam was implying the worst.

Walter. "A few hours only Colonel."

"Mmm..Sam we can't wait that long; if this is going to go the way I'm thinking, we need that intel now. Mitchell, an F307D is much faster in short hyper jumps than our carriers isn't it?"

"Yes sir and I know what you're thinking. I'm already on to it."

"Not alone. Take Commodore MacGregor with you, he can bring the Victory home. Mitchell I want you to bring Capt. Connolly back with her intel."

"Sir shouldn't I go, I mean the Commodore has barely settled in and certainly he hasn't any flight time on our 310's, especially not in command."

"Carter I need you here and Will MacGregor is one of the most experienced commanders in anyone's navy or Air Force, a space ship will be no different for him than a destroyer. Sam the Australians travelled to the Beta site and back on a 310 and he had the skipper's seat all the way back as I understand. Says here on his file, Mac passed command status as above average. Besides the Victory has a good XO doesn't it. "

"Major Chung, yes sir, she's good."

"There you go. Lighten up Carter, it'll be fine. Oh and Walter, get a message to whoever might be close to Victory's location, she'll need an escort!"

Walter. "Yes sir." The little sergeant scampers away.


	4. Chapter 4

Back on board the Victory's bridge, the ship had made it's rendezvous with the Orion and had only to make a brief rest stop before the final hyper jump to Earth. Capt. Connolly stood looking at the hyper-space event.

"Captain, we're picking up three vessels on the long range scanner; it's a Mother ship and two Hataks ma'am. They are very near to our hyper-space exit point." The XO turned in her chair, head tiltled as if listening.

"Friend or foe, Major?"

"Friend ma'am, it's Ishta's code."

"Just the same Major, cloak as soon as we exit. And Adams, get ready to retransmit to the SGC my coded message and tell them we're almost home."

Cam and Mac are in their F307, on their way to Jupiter, it was a fast trip, so as they exit the hyperspace window, they back it off some distance out.

"How she fly sir?"

"Very nice Cam, very nice indeed. A bit twitchier than the 'B' model, but I suppose that's to compensate for it's larger mass."

"I read your file sir, for an Aussie Navy guy, you've flown quite a lot of aircraft sir. I mean your Navy doesn't even have a carrier now does it."

"Not since 82', though we're building LHD's. But flying wasn't always my calling anyway Cam. I started out as regular sailor you know, diving."

"Yeah I read that. You call em' CD's sir?"

"Clearance Divers, they're much more like your SEALS nowadays, the two that came with us are going to Atlantis." He went quiet for a moment. " After Vietnam I got pretty well disillusioned with service life, but my wife Anne said I was destined for higher things and convinced me to stay and try for officer selection. No big deal I thought. Ha. Seems you had to have a much greater educational learning than I was unfortunately blessed with."

"So how'd you do it sir?"

"Anne pushed me, hard. Damn day and night for a year. Luckily I only needed three subjects to qualify, maths, English and one other, I chose science. At the end of the school year in my home state, I sat in a big hall, amongst a bunch of pimply kids who made me look like a proper moron; Cam I felt like one as well."

"But you passed sir, I mean that's how you're here now. You've had a long and wild career from what I've read on you."

"Wild Cam? Is that what you think?"

Cam stutters, not sure if he said the right thing. "Well..ah..um, no sir I don't mean that in a bad way. I just hope I can look back on all I've done and think, this old farm boy has done well, much like yourself sir."

"Well we've got that in common Cam."

"You're too young for reflection yet sir."

"No not that Colonel. I was a farm boy as well. Damn wheat for as far as the horizon could take you, that was my humble beginnings Cam. By the way, we've met before haven't we?"

"Yes sir. A few years back in Afghanistan, you were one of the officers at a debriefing, I had on returning from a badly screwed bombing mission I flew."

"Yes...I remember. It wasn't your fault you know Cam. I had a..a similar experience. It's just something you learn to live with isn't it?"

"Yes sir." He says solemnly. He had read Mac's file cover to cover, something about the man's career fascinated him. Cam Mitchell had bombed a truck full of refugees due to other peoples negligence. Mac, as commander of a frigate in the Gulf in 03', had shelled an entire village, due to someone else's error. _Yes you try to learn to live with it._

A high pitched beeping emanates from Cam's console.

"Ah sir I've got a lot of bogies on my screen can you confirm?"

"Aye lad. Looks like four big birds and a whole bunch of chicks! The fighters are closing fast one thousand five hundred klicks, off our port. They're using one of Jupiter's moons as cover, looks like Ganymede."

"They're waiting for Connolly, you can be sure of it. Ori mother ships and forty fighters at least. They could make a small jump to Earth from here to intercept the Victory the moment she is on their scanners"

"Well at least we know not all of their followers are gone or dead!"

"Yeah, but they should be. And I was just beginning to enjoy the peace and quiet I had this last year." The activity in the fighter was picking up, as Cam tried to talk and concentrate at the same time.

Mac laughed. "Cam, you were bored off your ass."

"Yes I was. Sir any ideas as to our present situation. We can outrun these guys, but they'll only track us all the way to the Victory. We can fight em' sir, though they have a few numbers on us, we'd probably lose...eventually."

"Mmm..yes." The older man thinks for a moment, the F307 fighter still on a heading straight for the oncoming enemy. "Cam?, how are you with crazy?" He asks nonchalantly

"I can do crazy sir, what do you have in mind?"

"Do we have any of those decoy drones like the ones I saw on the 302's at the beta site?"

"Six of them, why sir?" He pauses. "Ah I see where you're going with this. Sir this is crazy, crazy like General O'Neill, crazy like Sam Carter crazy, this 'my' kind of crazy" He exclaims.

"Okay Cam. Start transmitting a message to Victory, tell em' of our plight. I'll fly our bird, you got the weapons duty. On my mark, go to cloak and then we'll give these laddie's a wee surprise." He assumes a Scots brogue.

"Sir, they already know we're here. Once cloaked, they'll still get a reading on us."

"Yeah, I'm hoping for that."

Back on the Victory's bridge, Connolly is facing the screen, looking at an image of Ishta on her command ship. The sun haired woman has her arms folded in consternation. She was dressed in a very dark blue uniform, a little similar to that worn by the Air Forces of Earth. Battle style jacket with epaulettes, four gold bars, signifying her rank as Captain (Equivalent to full Colonel), cargo type pants, tucked into black boots. Other crew members seen on screen were attired in much the same way, except for their respective rank insignia.

Ishta was looking to some extent a little impatient. "Welcome back Sarah, your trip to Atlantis was unexpectedly cut short I understand. The SGC contacted us and requested we escort you back to Earth, they were however...somewhat cryptic in their reasons I'm afraid."

"I didn't expect that Ishta, I'm sorry. But yes we returned on a matter of the utmost urgency, we welcome your aid."

"I understand. It would be wise not speak of it then through the communication channels." She pauses briefly. "A moment before you arrived, we intercepted a message from Colonel Mitchell, he was on his way to assist, though I don't see how, as he is in a single fighter. But the message was clear, Ori ships are waiting for you in your Solar system, near the planet you call Jupiter. He is presently engaging them!"

All in Victory's bridge look up to the monitor on hearing Ishta's words, alarm written on their faces. Connolly turns to her XO.

"Major, how long to that vector?"

Major Chung runs a calculation through the computer. "About eight minutes at full hyper drive ma'am!"

Sarah turns back to the screen. "Ishta, we're going to make a jump and obviously we need your help. I realise your ships are not as fast as ours, but how far behind us do you think you might be."

Ishta turns to speak to someone and his image appears near her, it is Jonas Quinn. "My science officer tells me if we jump at the same moment, to the same coordinates, the Victory will drag us through. It will slow you down a little only. He predicts the time to be thirteen minutes, forty seconds."

"Thank you Ishta, let's pray Mitchell can hold out that long." She then issues the command. "Engage hyper-drive lieutenant, on my mark. Have all weapon systems ready the moment we exit." She then speaks to the entire ship. "This is the Captain. Ori ships are waiting to intercept us on our way home. They must be destroyed at all costs. Pilots to your craft, ready for launch on our arrival at the combat zone. Lieutenant...mark!"

The Victory opens a hyper-space window, Ishta and her other two ships follow the 310 through.


	5. Chapter 5

Back in Jack's office, Daniel is talking with Dr MacGregor, Sam and Jack stand quietly in a corner.

"So Dr. MacGregor, you're Jacobs little sister, Sam's Aunt."

"Please Daniel, call me Anne and yes I am. You seem surprised."

"No, no." He stammers a bit. "It's just that well, Jacob was and Sam is rather..."

Anne smiles. "Tall? Well yes, they both inherited my father's genes in that department. I got mum's. Though I have to admit being somewhat tiny, has had it's advantages over the years."

"Yeah, I can vouch for that" Jack added. "Sam did you know that when Anne and Mac were here back in eighty-seven, your Aunt got into almost everything, from Fair grounds to Movies at kids rates. Had it's downside though didn't it Anne...got asked to leave at many a bar! He chuckles.

Anne shoots him a fixed stare. "Like the time you and Mac got thrown out of the officers club at Edwards...singing rather salty sea shanties. Drunk as Lords too!" She grins triumphantly.

"General O'Neill singing sea shanties, drunk? Oh that I gotta see." Sam says with amusement.

O'Neill turns a rather dark glare toward Sam. "Yeah right." He say indignantly. "That'll never happen!"

Daniel, Anne and Sam laugh heartily.

Walter's voice interrupts the scene from the desk coms. "General sir, can you come on down sir. It's urgent."

In the control room, Teal'c and Vala are already there, one of the Australian Air Force Pilots, no more than twenty three or so, seems to be heeling Vala like a puppy. Smitten to the ears. As the others enter, Daniel looks at the young fellow, then just shakes his head. Vala seems not to notice at all.

O'Neill approaches Walter's console. "What is the urgency Walter?"

Walter turns in his seat. "Sir, three minutes ago NORAD deep space radar, sent us these images, they were tracking Colonel Mitchell and Commodore MacGregors progress for us."

He shows a series of colour enhanced slow motion shots of Jupiter, near to one of it's moons there appears to four ships and lot of small dots.

"Chief, enhance and go to two hundred percent." Sam tells him. Walter does so, but the image is still somewhat hazy. Sam hits a few buttons on the keyboard. "There...I've decreased the colour spectrum yield and.."

"Yeah Carter we got that. It's black and white now, but better." Jack examines the slowly evolving scenes. "What's that?" He jabs his right index finger at the screen.

Vala leans forward as does Sam. They both speak in unison. "It's a battle!"

"NORAD confirms sir, they're Ori ships sir!" Walter says urgently.

"I can see that Walter, but who are they fighting, those smaller ones are not ours and they're not Jaffa either, they all seem to be..."

Daniel turns about to study one of the larger monitors on the wall behind them. "Jack they are chasing one of ours. See that small blue dot. That's a cloaked F307, radar's only picking up it's energy signature. That's Cam Mitchell and the Commodore! What are they doing, why don't they make a hyper jump?"

"Because they know those ships will follow them to the Victory, they're buying her time." Sam interjected.

"They're mad. That's suicide!" Jack almost shouts. "Walter can we contact them?"

"Afraid not sir, already tried. Jupiter's atmosphere is blocking our transmissions." Walter replies.

Anne shouldered her way in. "They're not mad Jack. Only Will is." The small dark haired woman frowns.

"He's not mad Aunt, he's angry only he doesn't know it."

For the first time Teal'c speaks. "Often it is controlled anger that keeps a true warrior alive."

"Sam, find out Dreadnaught's status." At his word Sam Carter picks up a local handset.

"She's in Earth orbit sir, on picket duty with the Apollo."

"Good. If she makes a short hyper jump to Jupiter, how long, she can leave Apollo behind?"

"About four minutes sir. Sir I know what you're thinking, but we can't risk Earth's defence to rescue two men, no matter how much they mean to us." Sam avoided looking at Anne.

"You see that Carter." Jack pointed to the Ori ships on screen. "If they come here and get the better of Dreadnaught in our backyard, you can kiss our defence goodbye. Sure we've got two ZPM's powering the Ancient chair now, and more drones as well. But don't you think they know that. They'll target Antarctica before we get a shot off. Best to get the better of them on our terms." Everybody just looked at him, but they all knew he was right. "Besides Sam, Victory will be more than three times the distance away, if we're gonna save Cam and Will, the Dread's our only chance. SG1 is going, gear up in five minutes." He indicated Sam, Daniel, Vala and Teal'c.

"Great, we're a team again." Vala says with excitement.

"I'm going as well Jack. If it does come to a battle, the Dreadnaught will need a surgeon. Don't try and stop me Jack. I've had to read all the medical crew files on the 310's. Dreadnaught only has two orderlies on board whilst in Earth orbit." That was that, Jack knew he could not argue his friend's wife. _God, Mac never could._

On the Dreadnaught or Dread as she was known in the fleet. SG1, Dr MacGregor and the Australian Air Force pilots had just beamed aboard. The last four were added by Jack O'Neill on learning the ship was short of 307 pilots. Colonel Dmitri Suschenko was in command.

"Welcome aboard SG1, and ah...Dr, Captain MacGregor. And my new pilots as well." The Russian skipper could be irritatingly cheerful sometimes. "The General's message was brief, so I understand we little time."

"Yes Colonel, if we could be away please." Sam said insistently.

Dmitri turns to his XO. "Lt. Commander Hernandez, take us into hyper-space please."

"Aye sir."

The ship makes the hyper jump in the all too familiar way, but the new crew members all stare at the amazing sight unfolding before them. Even SG1 who had all seen it so many times.

"Ah Sam, there's something odd about this." Daniel turns to his old comrade

"What is it Daniel?"

"Well, there shouldn't be any Ori, we know that. Adria told us, then she was the last and Morgan Le Fay took care of her. And the Priors, well we know the Ark worked, so apart from some of their followers trapped on worlds they had invaded. But ships..no. There might be one or two we could have missed yeah, but four?"

"Yet here there are indeed four Ori ships Daniel Jackson." Teal'c said in his usual nonchalant way, as if it were an everyday occurance.

"Mmm, yes, even if there were Priors left to fly them, they're virtually powerless now that the Ori are gone." Sam ponders a moment. "The Priors are gone aren't they?

"Oh I think so..." Daniel fumbles a bit.

"Daniel." Vala says sternly.

"Yes, yes the Ark took care of them, for sure. But what if..." He looks at Vala in a study of concentration.

Teal'c looks at his friend. "What are you thinking Daniel Jackson?"

"Something Vala once said about Adria and the Ori. About sneaking one across the border. When Adria ascended, she took all that knowledge with her. How she was conceived, her blending with the Baal clone...what if they did it again before we destroyed them. If there was something like her in this galaxy, sent here before we found the Ark and Merlin's weapon..."

Vala finished what Daniel was presuming to. "Those ships could have been built in this galaxy and there is the possibility that the Ori, or something very much like them are here."

"Well we're about to find out. Colonel Suschenko, do you have need of us anywhere in particular?" Sam asks.

"Da. Colonel Carter I've got more 307's than pilots. If you and your friends could.."

"We are on our way Colonel Suschenko." Teal'c answers on Sams behalf.

Sam, Vala, Teal'c and the four Australian pilots made their way to the fighter bays at a run. Anne and Daniel, stayed behind. Lt. Commander Hernandez requested he be made available to join the 307's, a request the Colonel granted. Daniel took his place in the weapons control seat.

"With your permission Colonel I should go to medical." Anne MacGregor was going anyway, asking was a mere formalty.

"No need to ask Doctor, that is your command now."

"Thank-you." She said softly and headed for the elevator in the passageway.

Sam and the others are just reaching the hangar deck. Hernandez catches up to them. They speak as each is guided to an aircraft by a crewman. Flight suits are handed to them and they very quickly change.

"Ma'am, can she fly the 307?" Jose' Hernandez said softly to Sam, indicating Vala.

"Vala has flown over two hundred and fifty hours on 302's at the Beta site and has instructor status. As well as, she's flown more alien vessels than you've had birthdays Lt. Commander." She said a little too harshly, being somewhat protective of her other team members, as they all were. But then Sam, realised her tone was out of place, because after all, that was how she reacted when the people close to her, were in danger. Sam eased off a bit. "Yes she can fly well commander." Then she smiled at him.

They were all in single seat 'B' and 'C' models. The C's were always wing leader aircraft which pleased Teal'c, he had made his own stamp on this version.

On the tannoy. "This is the Commander, we're about to drop out of hyperspace, the ship is at battle stations. All pilots be ready to launch on my command. Colonel Carter, you will lead 'A' flight as blue squadron; XO, you have 'B', red squadron. Good hunting." The huge ship almost feels as if it has come to a complete stop when it emerges from hyper flight. "Launch now."

In the stillness of space, Mitchell and MacGregor, find there is more excitement and madness than they could ever have bargained for. The distance from the oncoming fighters was closing rapidly. At two thousand metres Mac gave the command. "Now Cam, go to cloak."

At the command, to the enemy their ship had simply vanished. But they would still be able to find the residue energy signature. That was the very thing Mac was hoping for. The space between them and their opponents closed and the 307 was amongst them. He gave Cam a second order. "Set three drones to active, we'll release them one at a time Cam, wait for my call."

The drones can be set as active or passive. In the active mode, they will lock on to an enemy ship, or group of ships and with the drone's onboard power cell, they will fire a limited number of lethal blasts at the foe. In passive mode, the drone uses it's power to flee, hopefully drawing pursuers away from the parent ship. The more drones, the more confusion for the enemy.

Mac flew right in amidst the Ori fighters. Weaving a path, in and around them. "One Cam!"

He continued the dance, the others began firing wherever they thought he and Cam were. He did a vertical loop around the nearest group, coming so close, Cam could see the other pilots closely.


	6. Chapter 6

"Holy buckets. Did you see that sir?" Cam was moving his head rapidly in every direction, not wanting to miss any important detail.

"Not now Cam I'm busy, tell me later if we survive. Release two!" He gave Cam the second release point as he flipped over from the top of the arc, slightly above the Ori fighters. Now he was in with them again, but flying a ninety degree course through them. Dodging only where necessary. "Three!" He ordered. Now let them sort that out. He pushed the throttles wide open and made a straight heading for the four Mother ships, grouped tightly above Ganymede's surface.

In their wake, the Ori fighters were a jumble. Moments after Mac left them behind, the drones began their defensive fire. The enemy pilots were totally confused, because the drones were as cloaked as their parent whilst it was still within a ten kilometre range. To call it a shambles was an understatement. Pilots began to panic, they tried to escape the melee, yet even as they did so, the drones had each homed in on a group of aircraft and copied their flight pattern. The drones fire took out a few and when the Ori pilots tried to close with this unseen opponent, they ended up shooting each other.

The trajectory of the F307 was sending them directly into the jaws of the Ori Mother ships, which had not changed their attitude since the engagement began, a low orbit above Ganymede. Cam's focus was entirely upon them, he blinked momentarily, but in that brief amount of time he was certain he saw the matter stream from transport rings, passing from one of the larger ships to the moon's surface and through the ice. "What the hell?" The words softly coming from him. 'Focus Cam, just focus.' Sweat was pouring down his face. _'MacGregor is a Naval officer. Naval commanders are all about tactics, surely the commodore wasn't thinking of..._

"Sir if you're thinking of doing what I'm thinking you're gonna do...sir there's no way...damn!' He swore. The 307 was violently rocked from a weapons blast. He looked to starboard and saw a cannon beam pass them by from behind. Wisps of smoke from small tear in the outer wing skin, showed a slight rupture of the trinium alloy casing. Nothing severe, but someone had a bead on them.

"Cam, it appears we have two bogies on our six. Mmm, interesting. We learnt at the Bega site that the Ori pilots were pretty much useless on their own...farmers, peasants and villagers pressed into service by the Priors. Stuck in a fighter and taught only how to basically get the thing aloft, point and shoot." He had a habit of talking rapidly while he was in the heat of battle, but he also knew when to be silent.

Cam could only barely make out the words, but he got the gist of it "Well sir, I was about to tell you.." Bam! Bam! Two more blasts explode all too near. "When we were in amongst those fighters, I saw one of the pilots. He was Jaffa sir and they are pretty good fighter jockeys."

"S'pose we better shake them son." As good as his word Mac took the 307 into some manoeuvres that Cam didn't think possible.

Cam was an excellent pilot, one of the best, but then Mac has had many more years to perfect his skills. Twists, turn, hard loops, until he was behind the two Ori ships. "Now's your chance Cam, take your pick. I'll hold this line on em' for as long as possible."

The two enemy craft realised they had been outdone in flight and had now become the quarry. Whatever skills they might have possessed, even if they were indeed Jaffa pilots; seemed ineffective against this single unseen foe. Cloaked as it was, the energy trail it left, still gave them something to shoot at. Yet somehow their instruments indicated the thing they had been pursuing, was behind them and closing fast. One of the pilots opened a broad range coms channel frequency. "Cowardly scum who dares to challenge us, we know you are cloaked, show your self and face us as a warrior." He challenged them in that typical old school Jaffa hostility.

"Cam, we got a call. What say we answer. Uncloak old son. And send this reply." Cam did as he was asked.

Inside the lead Ori fighter a transmission was heard. "Hey boys, heads up, we're coming for you. Have a look over your shoulder at the nice new Corvette about to screw up your game plan."

The two enemy pilots glanced at one another in utter confusion, one of them mouthed the word 'Corvette'?

In the 307 Mac and Cam switched duties. "She's all yours Cam, I'm just along for ride now...though I am going to keep a close watch on those big babies down there."

"You got it sir." Now it was his turn to put his skills to good use. Uncloaked, the 307 became detectable to the entire Ori fleet. Including those Ori fighters that managed to escape the first attack by the Tauri craft. Cam was always one for gung ho, this though he knew was insanity at best. That is always the only option when there is no other way out.

Twenty thousand metres to the south east of the Ori fleet, a hyperspace window opened. The Dreadnaught burst into the blackness beyond Jupiter. The squadrons came out of the hangar decks and immediately engaged the enemy craft still trying to engage Cam's decoys. Some few though had seen the ruse and turned away to join their two brethren in pursuit of Mitchell and MacGregor.

On closing the distance, Sam and the XO split into their relative squadrons and formed into a pincer movement around the surviving enemy craft. On the coms Sam hailed all pilots. "Blue leader, to Red leader, Hernandez, don't let your pilots get bunched up, the Ori fighters will try and block five or six of themselves together and use their combined firepower to take you out. Choose your targets and try and break the packs. Wingmen stay on your leaders; clean shots, watch your friendlies, safeties off!"

XO. "Roger blue leader. Red squadron, go for vector six below. Take em' out boys and girls."

"Samantha, I have a 307 visual, heading toward the Mother ships, that's got to be Mitchell and the Commodore." Vala called out.

"I see them. They've got three bogies on their tail and it looks like Cam's chasing two in front of him. Vala, Teal'c, break off here and go help them."

"Confirmed Colonel Carter. Captain Redman," Teal'c called his wingman, "stay close to me, watch our rear. Vala Mal Doran, lek tol shar!"

Vala interpreted Teal'c's command for the others, as a stack formation, two above, two slightly below and behind. A blind point that the quarry will assume to be a smaller attack. Vala tried to raise Cam and Mac on the coms, but something was distorting the frequencies. She made several adjustments and finally she got through. "Colonel Mitchell, Commodore MacGregor, we're on your six. You've got three bogies on your tail gentleman."

Cam was making rapid flight corrections to keep both Ori fighters in his sights. Constantly changing angle of attack, in his mind time slowed down, it was what happened to most anyone in combat. Yet in reality, the flow of time was only mere moments, tiny strands of the weave of life. He had the left hand fighter centred on the gun radar, thumb poised on the firing button, then Mac called to him.

"Angle of fire ten degrees to the left of his nose Cam, he's gonna try and break. I"ll square the other one." Cameron Mitchell didn't hesitate; hell, he knew the commodore had been doing this when Cam was still playing with toy planes. He vectored ten degrees to port, the firing solution just in front of the Ori craft...fire! Bam!" As Cam thought would happen, the enemy fighter veered in that direction the moment the gun button was fired, the cannon fire entirely severing the nose off the other craft. It began to spiral helplessly in space. In his head set he heard Mac, "Fox-four!" One missile away. A huge fireball exploded practically in front of them, the instant Cam pulled their 307 hard to port and up. Over the radio Cam heard sweet music. ...Vala's transmission.


	7. Chapter 7

Teal'c and his wingman USMC Captain Heather Redman, dispatched one each of the three Ori fighters, with gunfire. The third craft was being flown perhaps by a better pilot and managed to elude the four 307's in pursuit of it. Vala and Flt. Lt John Toralev gave chase but this fellow was proving to be quite good; using every avoidance technique in the handbook. Finally though, wether the pilot was tiring, or by good fortune, Vala managed to damage the enemy's port tail wing, which made the craft slew right into Toralev's gunsight. He fired two quick bursts and it was over, the fighter breaking in two pieces.

Sam and the rest of the squadrons did not have such an easy time of though. Once the Ori had disengaged themselves from the tangle Mac and Cam had provided for them, they dispatched the drones, but not before the Dreadnaught's fighters were onto them. A few of the enemy, who were the better of that lot, brought a bit of cohesion into their ranks and gave the 307's a battle large. Sam's 307 receiving a couple small hits across the top of the fuselage; her wingman losing one engine and the other failing, she sent him back to the carrier.

"Break, break, break." Sam ordered her flight. "Blue four and six cover the XO. The rest of you, disperse that lot on red seven's tail." Blue squadron broke off from their present battle, the enemy in that sector mostly accounted for, or trying to limp back to their Mother ship; which at this point had not made any movement from their orbit above Ganymede. Teal'c, Vala and Cam, with the two wingmen, now made a five ship group, bearing directly for the large Ori ships.

At this point it seemed strange that with the battle going on not too far from them, and a very powerful Tauri warship seemingly poised to engage with them soon, the Mother ships made no change in their attitude. They alone with their powerful and broad ranging weaponry, could have destroyed a number of the 307's and with four of them, done a lot of damage to the Dreadnaught. What was the purpose of them being here, it was obvious now that, apparently they may not have been waiting for the Victory at all and, there was some other unknown element involved. Cam and the other 307's veered away slightly from their heading, Vala spoke first. "Cameron how are you? Miss us?"

"Vala, Teal'c I am surprised. What brings you all to my party?" He said almost laughing.

"Colonel Mitchell, Commodore MacGregor, are you alright?" Teal'c inquired.

"Yeah we're fine Teal'c. Thanks for coming. We think we might have had a small problem to deal with just before you arrived though." MacGregor replied.

"Indeed."

"What are those Mother ships doing do you think?" The sight intrigued Vala.

"Ah I'm not sure Vala; but a little while ago, one of them was using transport rings down to Ganymedes surface...the commodore thinks we should check it out. Switching to cloak."

All five ships did so and in a tight formation, banked and adjusted their heading back toward the four large ships. The moment they did so, the two outer Ori ships broke from position, moving toward the Dreadnaught's sector, launching about twenty fighters each, as they did so.

"Ah hell, that's put the weasel up the rabbit's backside. Vala, Teal'c you'd better get back to the Dread, Cam n' I'll do the recon. Break now!" MacGregor ordered them.

The other four broke formation, uncloaked and returned at speed to protect the carrier. The first fighter battle now over, with those who still could fight taking position around the Dreadnaught; some few others returning and hopefully getting a new 307 to rejoin the oncoming combat. An AC401 was dispatched to recover any of those adrift in their 307 escape modules. (Note: On ejection, the entire 307 cockpit assembly will separate from the craft, much like an F111.) The scout ship's pilot would have to be quick though, if he was to avoid being a casualty himself.

Onboard the Dreadnaught, the crew moved with purpose; every member knowing their duties explicitly. In the hangars, maintenance personnel helped incoming pilots with damaged craft, into new birds and had them launch in rapid succession. Bridge crew anxiously awaited the coming tide, each at their designated station. Colonel Suschenko addressed the ships company. "This is Suschenko. It seems the Ori Mother ships have decided to enter the fray, we don't know why they waited so long and we don't care. It's on now, so in our first real combat, I ask only for you to do your jobs well and we'll survive this to toast our success. Good luck to you all...all hands, set battle condition one, secure all compartments, all weapon stations on line."

The enemy fighters split into four box formations for maximum penetration of the Dreadnaught's 307 defence screen. Sam and the XO had now only fifteen craft in their ranks; superior platforms yes, but outnumbered more than two to one. The two incoming Mother ships overbalanced that ratio well in the Ori favour. The 310's additional weaponry would have to help tip the balance. Teal'c and Vala, with their two companions coming from behind might provide an element of surprise, although they were only four. Well as Jack would say, "We've been in worse situations, haven't we Carter?"

In the cockpit of the Tornado, the familiar figure of Colonel Paul Davis, hauled back on the control yoke. Having recovered six 307 pilots and surprising even himself, compassion made him pick up four Ori pilots as well. Though they faired somewhat worse for their experience, not having modules to protect them, only their flight suits. They might live. Now he had to wait, on the outer edges of the battle space; the time it took for him and his two crewman to find and retrieve the survivors of the first engagement, meant he could not safely return to the carrier. At least he could transmit a message to the SGC. But would it do any good?


	8. Chapter 8

Back in O'Neill's Office. Walter calls on the phone. "Ah sir, we just got a transmission from Major, er sorry, Colonel Davis."

"That took a long time coming didn't Walter."

"Sir?"

"Davis, Colonel."

Walter a little confused as always with O'Neill. "Er..yes sir. General he's with the Dreadnaught, flying a AC401. He's a short distance from the carrier sir and apparently there's a god awful battle going on sir."

Jack just sits there stunned and murmurs to himself. "Damn, what have we gotten our self into this time?"

Sarah Connolly paced across the bridge, every now and then looking at the hyperspace horizon. "Bloody hell." She swore to herself. Aloud to her XO. "Major how long?"

"Thirty seconds Ma'am." Chung replied.

"About damn time. Set battle condition one; all stations prepare for engagement the moment we exit hyper-space. 307 pilots ready for launch." As Sarah gave her orders, sirens blared throughout the ship. "Adams, inform Ishta if you would please."

"Already done Ma'am." Sarah looked at the young Lieutenant._ "Flamin' upstart." _She chuckled silently.

Flt. Lt John Toralev clung to Vala's wing like a terrier. His handling of the big fighter was crisp and precise. Every time Vala seemed to be in danger, he was there. For Vala's two confirmed, John had blown another three away, that had threatened her. The pair of them were doing a dance routine amongst the enemy, that every now and then, Sam had seen and for the briefest possible moment just stared in awe. Four times she was about to warn them and each time, they seemingly knew the danger and reacted before she could do anything about it.

Teal'c and his partner were equally as ferocious in the fight, as were all the squadron members. The Ori had lost a significant proportion of their fighter defence and one Mother ship was severely damaged. But it was not a one sided battle. The Dreadnaught had taken a fair pounding herself, but was still fighting well, her shields holding strongly and deflecting most of what was being thrown at her. Still, at this rate the Ori could wear her down; the undamaged mother ship, still well in the fight. And the toll on the 307's was not light either; for though they made a good account of themselves against their opposite higher numbers, it wasn't a walk in the park. Twenty eight enemy fighters, either gone or so badly hit, they were just floating wrecks, Blue and Red squadrons now only numbered nine craft. And just when Dreadnaught's defenders thought they at last had the upper hand and one more final attack could end this, the second mother ship starting to also succumb to the combined fire of the carrier and her 307's; the third Ori vessel left it's orbit near the moon, to join in the battle, launching more fighters as it did so.

Cam and Mac knew it was more than possible the two large vessels just above them were aware of their presence, cloaked as the 307 was, there was still an energy signal the enemy would undoubtably be able to detect. Cam held the fighter just below the bow of the ship with it's ring transporter beam carving a hole in Ganymede's icy crust, Mac suggested they should try and get closer, perhaps get some sort of readings. Cam agreed and as he started to move slowly forward, the second mother ship broke orbit and moved away to join the battle going on around the Dreadnaught. Mac saw it first.

"Okay Cam, we can't stay here any longer. Our friends are gonna need all the help they can get. This big mongrel is not going to move unless we give it a prod and I don't think we should right now. We'll come back if we can, if only to find out what's going on. Make speed now Cam, we've got work to do."

"I agree sir." He pushed the throttle wide open and took the 307 beneath the length of the Ori warship and arced up and over the top of it, speeding toward the fight ahead of them.

Anne MacGregor stood beside Dread's commander, anxiously peering out at the battle raging around them. The great ship rocked from gunfire directed toward her. Daniel called out the shield status as sixty percent and holding, other crew members scuttled about extinguishing small fires here and there. Dmitri was the first to see the next wave of Ori approaching. He swears in his mother tongue.

"Colonel, I realise we're in a difficult position...but, oh never mind." Anne wouldn't ask him now.

"What is it Doctor?" He said a little rushed.

"Nothing we can do now Colonel. But I do have quite a few injured and I'm running out of beds, and some of them are critical. Let's hope we can survive this."

"Doctor I know what you're thinking, I'll do all that's possible. As soon as we can move out this we will, but we cannot allow this enemy to lay wait for the Victory. That is my priority right now Doctor, I'm sorry."

"It's alright Dmitri, I understand."

Dmitri thinks for a moment. He turns in his seat and addresses an older crewman wearing a reddish beard. "Chief Callaghan, please go with Dr. MacGregor. Doctor the chief will help you. Have your most serious patients moved to the hangars Ma'am, two of our Tornados are fitted for medivac; if all goes south Doctor, you can at least get those away."

"Thank-you Colonel, that will do fine."

"You're welcome Captain."

Callaghan moved beside the other two. "Ma'am Chief Petty Officer Stuart Callaghan at your service." He said in a heavy highland accent. "I'll arrange the AC401's for your needs immediately." He turned and headed out, Anne following behind him.

Lt. Briggs (Dreadnaught's coms and radar officer). "Ah sir we've got multiple ships on our scanners, coming in fast on a hyper vector, bearing zero seven five degrees, inclination fifteen."

"Ours or theirs Lieutenant?"

The young woman waits a moment, then announces joyfully. "Ours sir!"

"Let's hope it's the Victory."

"Odds, Dr. Jackson?"

Cam and MacGregor were closed in behind the third Mother ship; they had fired both cannon and missile at the vessel and caused some damage, the Ori ship's shields not completely protecting her from the 307's newer weapons. Still though, it was an enormous craft and only a lot of 307's or one of the 310's could really inflict any serious harm. The battle ahead was intense, yet the Dread's defence screen was holding...just. "We need a bleeding miracle!" Mac called to Cam, as the two of them turned their attention to any Ori fighter they could find; Mac also directing other 307's where he saw the opportunity for them to prevail. It was then he saw the multiple contacts on his display, off to their port side, the friendly IFF blips showing immediately. "Ask and ye shall receive Colonel Mitchell." He said heartily.

For the Ori, the fight was over. For the defenders they had to count the toll. Yet mystifyingly the fourth

Mother ship had not moved or made any attempt to join in the battle. It just sat there, the transport rings activating in sustained bursts for about twenty seconds at a time. A meeting aboard the Victory was convened with SG1, the two carrier captains and Ishta and other senior officers in attendance. Communication was established with the SGC and a detailed account of the events was given for General O'Neill and the IOA's benefit. As often happens in the battlefield, orders are changed to suit the occasion. Capt. Connolly exchanged commands with Col. Suschenko and she would return to base with the Dreadnaught, convey the injured home and make her report. Score, two Ori ships destroyed, one captured. Seventy two Ori fighters destroyed, the remainder towed to a safe distance and blown up in one great fireworks display; except two held for study back on Earth. Of the Dreadnaught's original compliment of thirty-four 307's, seventeen remained serviceable, five were repairable, the rest lost. The Dread lost nine good pilots, six wounded. Victory lost three fighters and one pilot. Ishta and her fleet got lucky, losing on one fighter, the pilot ejecting and was recovered. The Ori numbers had not been tallied, but the SGC now had three hundred and sixty-five prisoners to deal with. Presently they were being held in containment on the captured Ori ship, with a strong guard of sixty troops, drawn from all the allied ships. As Cam had indeed noticed previously, there were Jaffa amongst the prisoners, all belonging to the Rishek faction.

On board the Dreadnaught, twenty three crew sustained injuries, two serious, three KIA. _(The Dreadnaught was only at half capacity of 307's and even less pilots, when she was called to action. This encounter being her first, it will be considered a job very well done. Jack O'Neill)_

SG1 remained aboard the Victory as did Commodore MacGregor and his wife Anne. She did all she could for the wounded and passed her care of them over to the Victory's MO, who went with Capt. Connolly. One member of SG12 remained behind, Capt. Henderson, now awake and fully alert, suffering no more than a large bruise to her forehead. SG1 had been given new orders to investigate P5X 449, P9K 728 and find out what that damn Ori ship was doing. Jack was most explicit on that. In the conference with O'Neill, it was determined the young Marine Captain would be more valuable to stay with the ship, on clearance from the MO's, which Anne had done so.

A surprise also was given to Jack's friend MacGregor, who was informed that he was now given the newly appointed post of Starfleet Commanding Officer, or as usual in today's parlance STACOMO, with it also came Mac's long awaited promotion to Vice Admiral at the behest of the Australian Defence Forces Command. When Jack relayed the orders, he was grinning rather smugly, his image on screen probably hiding his true feelings. This was one promotion he'd given, aside from Sam Carter's, that he truly enjoyed doing so. Mac was taken aback, but not enough to stop him from asking O"Neill. "I hope this is not job's for the boys Jack." Which brought a round of mirth from all those around. "If only." Jack replied. "No Mac, this came through about fifteen minutes ago via the Pentagon and the IOA. Actually General Bingham had suggested it the day you arrived, seems he likes your work Mac!" He added. "Crusty Bingham?" Mac asked. "Yeah, you know him?" O'Neill asked. "We ah..worked together in Iraq." That was all Mac would say on the matter.

Finally the Victory was ready to depart, but the first order of business was for SG1 to get close and personal with the Ori ship. Nevertheless shipboard ceremony came first. Albeit brief. The ship's company (with the exception of those on watch), assembled in the starboard hangar; for those who had them, dress uniforms were worn. Fortuitously for Mac, Anne had the presence of mind to bring her husband's bags with her when she came aboard the Dreadnaught. She couldn't explain why, she just did. Their niece Sam, played her part as well, using the Asgard matter converter to make the appropriate shoulder boards for Mac. Of course he was unable to come up the gangway in the traditional sense, so Mac exited from the rear doors of a AC401, walking toward Colonel Suschenko and the ships senior officers, including SG1 and the ship's new MO, Captain/ Doctor Anne MacGregor. The crew were lined either side of the hangar to form a 'passageway' for Mac to traverse.

He stepped from the Tornado nervously, it wasn't as if Mac had never done anything like this before, it was just with so many different personnel on board, both of Earth and 'Alien'...the word sounded weird in his mind, he wasn't so sure of how to react. With an Aussie crew he knew where he stood. But this...hell he was the odd man out. Or so he thought. As he walked forward, a bosun's call sounded, which startled him somewhat. _"Now where in God's name did they get that?" _He asked himself.

As Mac walked the centre of the hangar deck, the ship's CO made the announcement. "Attention on deck! Flag officer on board!" The ship's company snapped to attention, each section leader calling for a salute, Mac held his hand stiffly to his brow as only a sailor knew how to do. It felt like a mile and his legs seemed to drag, he focussed on the only thing he could always do, his wife. Only this time she was there up in front of him. In the last section, he saw a young Marine officer, her shirt patch identified her as Henderson J., she gave him a small nod, which Mac acknowledged ever so briefly. _"So lass, you're the reason I'm here, what next I wonder?"_

Looking at the different faces of the crew, resplendent in summer dress for some, others managed as best as they could, it was hard not notice the odd looks from a few. They were most likely thinking as he would have done,_ "Is this some usurper come to take their skipper's command?"_ Well, those other than Navy folks would be thinking that. Sailors knew a fleet officer is much like a head of state, they have scores of people to advise them and tell them how things had to be done. The ships Captain will still be just that, Captain of the ship. Mac reached the dias that had been set up, Dmitri approached him and saluted. Pity there was no breeze, the various national flags behind the senior officers, looked wonderful. Anne beamed a brilliant smile his way, Mac had to still himself from bursting out laughing.

"Admiral William Angus MacGregor on behalf of the Victory and her crew, Earth and her allies, I present to you the pennant of the Starfleet Commanding Officer. Welcome aboard sir." He salutes again. Then something happened that Mac never would have dreamed of occurring on a ship that had it's origins rooted in Air Force protocol. Suschenko stood rigid, his face unreadable. "Chief of the watch!"

A stocky looking Afro-American master sergeant stepped away from the ranks, to the centre of the deck. In a loud voice, which was probably heard throughout the entire vessel. "Ship's company, three cheers for the Admiral of the Fleet!" Mac's reddened face would have stopped traffic in Times Square.

"Admiral, you have the ship!" Dmitri said loudly, for all to hear.

Mac had one final duty to perform, a service for the fallen. He gave instructions to the ship's Padre, USAF Chaplain Emily Dixon, she quietly recited the Ode.

"They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them. Lest we forget"

"Lest we forget" The crew responded.

A lone bugler from the crew, played the last post. At the end, with one voice all the crew replied..

"We will remember them."

.com/watch?v=mQI-7UOG89w


	9. Chapter 9

Captain Sarah Connolly sat silently in a chair in Jack O'Neill's office, she twisted about now and then to watch the General talking with that little weasel of a man Woolsey._ "Christ." _She thought. _"What does that bilge rat want?" _Letting her mind drift, she recalled all the events, leading up to this moment, wondering if either her or Dmitri had done anything wrong, or made an unprofessional call. _"No dammit, we did all we could." _She waited until Woolsey left, and stood and saluted when Jack entered the room. He returned the salute in his casual manner and closed the door. Jack spoke into the intercom.

"Walter I don't want to be disturbed, unless the world's gonna end okay!" Chief Harriman replied affirmative.

"At ease Sarah, and sit down please." Jack indicated the chair in front of his desk. He then sat himself down.

"Thank-you sir."

"Ah cut the sir crap Connolly, the room's not bugged."

"Er yes sir...Jack. May I ask what Woolsey was after?"

"The usual. Someone to point fingers at, someone to take the fall. Actually Woolsey's turned out an alright guy. He's pretty much covered for us a number of times now at the IOA. No Sarah, you don't have to worry, or Colonel Suschenko either for that matter. Besides the report is not done yet, that's why you're here. So let's get started okay."

Sarah related to O'Neill everything that occurred from the time the Victory recovered the SG team up until the minute she walked into Jack's office. She left nothing out. The interview she had with Lt. Dreznov, and another she had with Captain Henderson after the young woman regained consciousness. She read out Dmitri's report of the events on the Dreadnaught verbatim and handed over those of Colonels Carter and Mitchell. Jack scanned through them quickly, then leaned back in his leather chair. He looked at Connolly squarely and finally spoke.

"I'm hungry Sarah, you feel like lunch?"

Sarah looked at him as if he had two heads and then conceded to Jack's suggestion. "Yes of course Jack. Are we going 'Dutch' or what?" They both laughed at that and for the first time in three days she felt at ease. As they left the office, Jack paused for a moment then asked her.

"How long is the Dread going to out of action, and I'm buying?"

"Two to three weeks tops they tell me. Then the Pentagon has given me another two weeks to get my new 307's and their crews up to speed. Oh and apparently the Dread's getting the first of the 'E' models."

"You don't sound happy about that." He replied as they headed for the stairs that would take them to the mess.

"No not really Jack. I hate having to be the first to do something that might be considered...ah..groundbreaking I suppose you would say."

"Bullshit Sarah. I know your file backwards. First female Navy jet jock to launch and recover on a carrier in a F14, first woman pilot of any service in the US to go into combat. And let's not forget the first woman captain of a carrier; not to mention our own BC-310's. That's quite a lot of firsts girl!"

"It was a LPH, Jack."

"A what?"

"The 'carrier' was a LPH, a helo landing ship full of smelly marines, with a handful of Harrier's."

"To me, it's the same thing...a carrier. Anyway that's not what I wanted to talk about. I want you to take two weeks leave, before you rejoin your ship. How do you feel about fly fishing?"

"I've done it a couple of times. My father was mad keen on it. Why?"

"You're going to New Zealand for your leave Sarah. While you're there you can explain to Hank Landry why he has to cut his vacation, as I have to go back to Washington. You can keep Master Bra'tac company and bring him back with you when you return in two weeks."

"So the lunch is a bribe Jack...mmm."

"Of course it is. And the Air Force is paying anyway." They both chuckled. "Oh and one more thing Connolly, what do you think of our new fleet commander?"

"William MacGregor. He's a good man Jack. I've worked with him a few times. Once when he was the Australian Defence Representative at the Pentagon, and on several Rimpac exercises . I could not think of a better choice, from any nations service. Will is an excellent officer Jack, though a little hot headed and is completely dismissal of authority at times; a bit like someone else I know." She winked wickedly at him.

Will sat on the edge of the bed in the cabin provided for both he and Anne, he had changed from his best whites into one of the green standard issue flight suits, and fiddled with the two stars now embroidered onto the collar. The steward assigned to the MacGregor's was most insistent that she do it herself, it was her job and he would be pleased. She insisted on that as well. He stared out at the view beyond the window, he could just make out the Ori Mother ship, hovering above the moon's surface; Sam and SG1 were there in a Tornado, scanning the vessel and would return shortly. That close to the ship, it was somehow screwing with communication. A soft knock on the door startled him.

"Yes come in." He almost whispered.

Petty Officer Miki Yakuno slipped into the Admiral's cabin when her knock was answered; she stood silently behind Mac, waiting on her commanding officer. He stood slowly and turned toward her.

"Ah Miki, what can I do for you?" He enquired.

Yakuno was a little taken aback by being addressed by her first name from an officer, more so by the Admiral. Yet she had noticed that kind of easygoing nature in Australian officers before. She wasn't so sure if it was a good or bad thing. It's not how Japanese officers would relate to an NCO, no matter how well they knew them. "Ah sir, Colonel Suschenko would like you to come to the bridge sir. He tried using the coms sir, but apparently you might not have heard him calling.

Mac in fact did hear the coms. It was in another part of his mind. At the time he was far away, trying to somehow reach out to his son. The thought occurred to him, that being out here in the void of space, Ben might hear his voice.

"Stupid SOB." He berated himself. "Right, coming straight away. Oh and Miki, would you take these to Dr. MacGregor, she'll probably be needing them." He handed the steward a pair of tortoise shell framed glasses.

"Yes sir." And off she scampered to toward the medbay. When she arrived Anne was scrubbing up for an operation. A tech had slipped in the hangar bay and broken his ankle, badly. The bone was protruding through the skin. Miki stood back at the doorway and made a small clearing sound in her throat. "Ahem, Ma'am."

Anne turned away from the prep sink. "Oh Miki, is there something I can do for you?"

"Ah um no, Ma'am. The Admiral asked me to bring you these." She handed over the spectacles. The young woman paused before she left. "Excuse me Ma'am, may I ask you something?"

Anne looks over her shoulder at the patient about to be anethesetised by her assistant doctor. "Yes of course, but it'll have to be quick." She says kindly and inclines her head toward the operating table.

"I was not sure Ma'am. To um, well address you as Captain or Doctor, seeing as you're both."

Anne speaks down low. "Well dear, either one is correct. But when no one is around, you will call me Anne, are we clear." Doctor MacGregor gives the woman her broadest white smile.

Miki wasn't quite sure if this was better or worse than her situation with the Doctor's husband. But she took it with her usual good grace. "Yes Ma'am. We're clear."

When the steward left, Anne walked slowly back toward her patient and Dr. Pramaswan. Something just occurred to her. _"How does he do that."?_ She was of course looking at the glasses in her hand. She had completely forgotten about them herself, though she didn't always need them. Anne just felt more comfortable with them when doing surgery. But it was Will she was thinking about now. So many times she remembers him taking action on one thing or another, well before anyone else thought to do so, she made a mental note to look into it.


	10. Chapter 10

SG1 had already returned by the time Mac reached the bridge, Dmitri saw the Admiral first and beckoned him over with a nod. Sam and the others were gathered around a monitor, she waited until Mac joined them. He eased in between Teal'c and Daniel, who greeted him with a thumbs up. "Hi sir. Uniform looks smart." Teal'c half bowed toward Mac. "It looks most agreeable on you William MacGregor." Mac just eyeballed the two of them._ "God I'll never get used to these guys."_ His thoughts were a hairs breath from being spoken.

Mitchell was speaking and pointing at the monitor. "We got pretty damn close sir." He told Suschenko. "Close enough that if anybody and I mean anybody, was on that thing they should have fired on us."

"Which is the weirdest thing sir. We didn't even detect weapons being powered up. Their shield was up sure, but that was all. But...there was one thing." She walked over to the screen and pointed at a spot near the ships bridge. "There is a tremendous energy reading coming from here, it's something familiar about it I think we've encountered before." Sam said.

"So colonels, why did you not just blast the thing? Get rid of it. We've already got one to study." He said a bit hotly. Dmitri wanted to get moving onto their next objective.

"Well Captain, there was some debate as to whether or not that might have been a good thing." Vala looked at the Russian commander, weighing up wether he was handsome or not.

"How so." Dmitri asked.

At that point Mac moved over to stand next to Sam. "Sam you didn't detect any life signs did you?"

"No. But that doesn't mean anything. That field of energy could be blocking our scans. I think sirs, we should try and board the ship and find out what it's doing and why the other ships were protecting it."

"Finally. Someone gives me straight answer." Dmitri sounded too much like O'Neill with a Russian accent.

"How do you propose to get in Sam? From the files I've read those Ori shields are fairly effective in preventing you beaming onboard, and while that ring transporter is active, you can't use that either." Mac was tapping a beat with his pen on the screen.

Daniel looked at him, thought of something then dismissed it. "I don't suppose there is some way we can circumvent the shields Sam?"

Everyone looked toward Carter as if she had the answer to everything. She was sure if McKay were here he would have had some brilliantly sarcastic comment to make about how everybody looks to him at the eleventh hour. "Short of firing some well placed shots at her and hopefully doing just enough damage to the shield drive, I'm not too sure at the moment."

Cam. "That's it Sam. That's all we've got?"

"Oh give her a break all of you. Samantha doesn't have all the answers to the universe you know!" Vala said in defence of her friend.

"Indeed. But there may be some other weakness we can exploit. We have the other ship, perhaps we might find the answer there." Teal'c said casually.

"Well said Teal'c. But I'm afraid we don't have a lot of time. General O'Neill wants us away from here and on to our other missions within two hours from his last transmission. We now have one hour forty-five minutes or we blow the thing up." Dmitri said.

"Maybe not. Sam I remember reading one of your mission files, where you and Jack created a hyper window below Anubis's shield on his mother ship, so you could take out his weapons generator. Is that not so?" Mac was going over SGC files in his mind, trying to find similarities.

"Yes it was sir. But that was probably four times bigger than an Ori ship, and the calculations were based on precise schematics we had at the time. With all due respect sirs.." Sam looked directly at Mac, there was something in his eyes that told her there might be a way. "...we've got nothing to go on here and we very well can't go out and measure the ship with a verniers in the time General O'Neill has allowed us."

"Sam how big is the shield on the Ori ship. I mean, how far does it extend outwards from the ship's hull?" Cam could see something here.

"I'm not sure, but our scans should be able to tell us. There's a macro in the energy scan that can measure output, compared to mass, that sh..."

"Colonel can you do it, yes or no?" Dmitri asks.

"Yes we can. Just give me a minute." Carter connects a laptop and inserts the data disc from the Tornado's scanner log. In seconds a graphic three-dimensional image of the Mother ship is on the screen, with the outline of the ship's shield in a pale green hue surrounding it. Mathematical equations run down the side of the picture in a separate menu, then a scale forms over the ship, detailing the various depths of the defence shield. "There. It runs at about four point five metres over the ship. Cam, that's not going to do us any good at all. We know where to target certain areas, but a 307 would not fit within that shield."

"What about there." Mac points to the part of the ship directly behind the front curve of the vessel, where it rises up and then recedes as it flows toward the stern.

Sam analyses that particular area and indeed there seems to be a large cavity in the flow of the shield. "Well, from that point there, we've got about nine metres in height and fifteen in width, but I still can't see how that will gain us access?"

"How tall is the C401, wheels up to the top of the tail?"

"Oh I know that answer, I'm good at puzzles." They all look at her strangely, but Vala just gives them her toothiest white smile. "From the bottom of the fuselage to the tip of the tail, is exactly six point two metres Admiral." She grinned in satisfaction at him.

"I'm not going to ask how you know that Vala..."

"Well I did..."

"Vala! I don't want to know. Just tell me that is the correct height ok!"

"That is correct sir." Cam confirmed.

"Good then. Sam here's our shot." Mac replied.

"Admiral, if I may enquire, what is our shot?" Dmitri looks a little puzzled.

"Piece of cake Dmitri. We load up a C401 with SG1 here and a few marines, plot a hyper window that will put us exactly at this point..." Mac indicates a place on the Ori ship, just behind the bulge... "once there SG1 and the said marines will beam in. Presto!" Well at least the Admiral was enthusiastic, everyone else just looked dumbstruck.

"Sir, the calculations required to that...we'd have no room for error, just point one percent out and we could end up inside the ship or worse. Plus when we exit the hyper window our velocity..."

"Would have to be zero. Yes Sam I know. I'll take care of that; I'm flying. You just worry about the math. Get anyone else you need to help you ok?"

"Admiral I must protest sir. We can't have our new fleet commander flying off on some mission that may or may not vork."

"The captain's right sir..." Mac just looked at them all. Feet shuffled, heads dropped. There was no argument with this man.

"It'll work Dmitri. Now Sam..."

"I'll get right on it sir." She turned about to see Ishta standing amongst a group of officers. The Jaffa leader was looking directly at Teal'c. "Ishta do you mind if I borrow Jonas for little while?"

"Of course Colonel Carter, I'll have him come over immediately.


	11. Chapter 11

Sam and Jonas were at a terminal in the lab area; they had gone over their calculations and repeated the procedure. Sam leaning on the bench, Jonas standing with a pen in his mouth.

"So Jonas how're things going back home?"

"Oh great Sam. After the Ori were finally dealt with, there was a lot to do. I was just getting used to having my feet on the ground, when the position with Ishta's fleet come up. I couldn't say no."

"So you and..."

" Yeah we're good. Kianna is leading the tech teams on the new CE-340's. It's gonna be great." He was so cheery at everything. Sam could not but admire his attitude.

Cam pops his head around the corner. "You guys finished?"

"Yeah Cam we're on our way."

Back on the bridge, the assembled personnel await Sam and Jonas, they walk in following Cam. Sam has a concerned look on her face.

"Problems Sam?"

Sam. "Yes and no Admiral. Jonas and I have done the calculations, that part's fine."

"But...there's always a 'but' isn't there Colonel?" Dmitri laughed.

"Sort of sir. The problem is that in making these coordinates, the Admiral here, must be able to bring the C401 to a dead stop the moment the craft comes out of the hyper window. With the velocity of exit being equal to entry. Sam and I can't figure out how to do that." Jonas said without his usual cheer.

"Basically, it's almost impossible."

"Almost? Colonel Carter, you think though, it might be possible?"

"Well Teal'c, apart from the fact that our ships are not designed to do that, If it could be done, it'd take one hell of a pilot."

"Like I said Sam, I'll be flying and coming to a dead stop in a 401' won't be a problem. So everybody get ready, mission's on. Dmitri, I want you to get in touch with the SGC. Have them send SG7 and 16 to...what's the next closest planet to our first target?"

Cam turns toward the star map behind them. "That would be the Gamma base sir."

"Ok, Colonel have those teams sent to the Gamma base, where you'll pick them up. Those kids know the lay of the land and will provide good intel in situ for us. Plus we might well need the additional fire support. The Victory will proceed ahead of SG1 and we'll catch you up. Any questions?"

All those on the bridge looked about, some shrugging shoulders, others just either looking at their feet or the deck head, then Cam asked. "Sir, what if we need some sort of back-up while we're on that ship, if we get on it that is. I mean like big ship back up?"

Ishta caught the Admiral's attention. "Admiral, I will stay behind. My other two Hataks can accompany the Victory if you wish." She casually gazed toward Teal'c, who appeared somewhat uncomfortable.

"I appreciate the offer Captain Ishta, but this is not your fight, you don't have to be a part of this."

"Oh indeed we do Admiral MacGregor. Whether the Tauri realise or acknowledge it at this point sir, we are a part of the Stargate Alliance now and we are wholly committed to whatever cause the Tauri pursue. We are as one with you Sir." She bowed slightly.

"Do you speak for all the free Jaffa Captain?"

Ishta looked at Teal'c once again, he nodded consent, she then turned to several other Jaffa officers under her command who were standing behind the main group, and they too nodded their consent. "I do Admiral." She said confidently.

Mac absorbed the whole scene around him. Willing and loyal allies, staunch and highly capable forces of Earth and all her partners, now ready to do battle yet again to restore order to the galaxy and anywhere the fight took them. "Right then, you all have your orders. Dmitri when you finally reach P9K 778, if the enemy is there, do not, I repeat, do not engage them. Stay a comfortable distance out of sensor range and await our arrival. We should not be long. Are we clear?" He spoke this time to everyone around him.

"Yes sir!" Was the reply from all.

SG1, Ishta, her crewmen and Mac make their way to the hangar deck, along the way they pass by the medical bay. Anne MacGregor stops her husband as he nears the door, she acknowledges Sam and the others with a small nod.

Anne grabs her husband by the sleeve. "So, you're going to do this eh?" She was a little miffed.

"It's gotta be done sweetheart, but don't worry Anne, it'll be fine."

She thumps him hard on the chest and whispers to him. "Don't you sweetheart me William MacGregor. If anything happens to you, I can't find Ben on my own." Her eyes water.

Mac leans closer to his wife. "Darling, nothing is going to happen to me. Remember when you said once that not even bomb in my face could kill me..."

"You were fifty feet away at the time and you had a armoured vehicle between you and the bomb. Will I was only joking at the time you know that. But since you're determined to go, please don't screw up alright. If you get hurt, I'll kill you myself." she kissed him softly. "Now go."

Mac caught up with the others just as Sam came near the door, she was lugging a huge backpack, most likely filled with her ever-present laptop and other geek gear. Anne took her gently by the arm. "Sam, will you do something for me?"

Sam looked at her aunt's face, she could see the half formed tears in the older woman's eyes. "Of course Aunt Anne, anything."

"Well for one, now that we're working together, please drop the aunt, I'm too young for that. Secondly I want you to watch out for Will. He's too much like Jack O'Neill for his own good and more than likely will do something very stupid. Do I have your word?"

Sam hugged her father's younger sister. "You know I will...Anne." They hugged closer and then Sam walked slowly after the others. Anne MacGregor stood there watching as they entered an elevator.


	12. Chapter 12

The Victory was now on it's way to rendezvous with the two SG teams at the Gamma base, Ishta's second in command taking charge of her other two Hataks, to support the Tauri ship. Mac with SG1 and eight infantry (Marines and SF's) were preparing to try and penetrate the Ori ships shield with a C401. They had flown the craft over to Ishta's Mother ship and Sam along with Jonas and Mac were making some adjustments to the 401's flight controls. Cam, Daniel, Teal'c and Vala approach up the loading ramp and stand just behind the other three working on one of the myriad of the 401's circuits.

"How's it going, we all done?" Cam asks.

Sam lifts her head from what she was doing, pushes the crystal cabinet back in and replies. "Yep, we're done...we are aren't we sir."

"Yeah, um sure we're done." Mac replied with some hesitation.

Daniel looks sceptically at Teal'c and Vala, those two seemed unsure of the work being done by the others. "You sure you're done...like it could be a maybe sir."

Jonas couldn't figure out what was going on, but makes the reply. "No, we're ready." Sam and Mac smile at each other as if something else, is really going on. Daniel makes a mental note to enquire about what could possibly be going on.

"Alright then sir, you mind filling us in on what you guys have been up to?" Cam pokes his head in a bit further to try and see what was going on.

"Oh nothing much Colonel. We've just rigged the engine computers to give us point five of a second full reverse thrust a few microseconds after we enter the hyper-window. That is...we hope, going to give us our full stop, when we exit the event in that little space above the Ori ship."

"Hope? There is a fine line between hope and actuality Admiral MacGregor." Teal'c said.

"It'll work Teal'c. But just the same Unc...er the Admiral is going to have be very delicate with the controls."

Cam looks at Sam's Uncle, if anybody can do this. He knew the older man could.

Mac looked from one to the other, then to Jonas. He scratched the scar on his cheek. "Jonas is there something going on between those two?" He whispered, as he cast a glance at Sam and Mitchell.

Jonas just shrugged his shoulders and grinned. Which basically said that if there weren't, there should be.

"Right then where's our troops?" And from somewhere behind the ship in the vast cargo bay of Ishta's vessel a voice called out. "We're here sir."

"Well get your butts in here now. Sam we got our stuff?" Sam kicked one of the five large cases on the floor.

"Ah sir, we're boarding a ship aren't we? That looks like we're going on an expedition." Daniel thought the luggage might be a bit of an overkill.

"I believe the Admiral ordered the Marines to bring Hazmat suits for us all." Vala informed her friend.

"Daniel, don't ask." Was all Sam had to stay, before he could even ask the question. Sam turned to Jonas. "Are you going with us Jonas?"

"Ah yes I believe I am Sam. The Admiral here asked Captain Ishta if I would be available. Naturally she said yes. She thinks you guys might need an extra pair of hands...or luggage porter." He looked straight at Daniel, who just sighed.

Back in the Stargate Command, debriefing room. Jack O'Neill, Major Pearson (Intelligence Officer), Gustav Pirille (IOA representative) and Dr. Lam are conducting interviews with Lt. Alexi Dreznov. All of them are seated around a large table, cameras and microphones active.

"Alright son, let's take it from just after the time the Major ordered your team into a split recon. You were with corporal Aboud...by the way Doctor, how is she?" Jack asked.

"Mostly second degree burns General, her blood works are good and she regained consciousness early this morning, she's stilled sedated though and we've managed to re-stabilise her right knee. Victory's medics did a good job sir." Carolyn replied, with a slightly concerned look on her face.

"Doctor Lam, was not Major Swane badly injured as well?" Pirille sensed she didn't finish all she was going to say.

Carolyn look sadly toward the Frenchman. "Yes he was sir...but I'm afraid he didn't make it. He simply had lost too much blood and infection had spread too far before the Victory could even do anything for him. I'm sorry."

"I see." He said glumly.

"Very well then, please continue Lieutenant." Jack turned back to the young man, he felt the loss of a good team leader badly, he hated this job at times.

"The Major told us to do a parallel sweep out from the gate, we were to stay in radio contact every ten minutes. Our route was two hundred and fifty metres apart. Corporal Aboud was uneasy sir, she said in that terrain, we were too far apart, but we trusted the Major sir, he's led us right on twenty three missions and not one injury, so we carried on." He took a large drink of water. "We made three radio contacts with the major and then about a minute or two before our next call, Sandy.. I mean corporal Aboud heard the fire fight. Captain Henderson called for back up and gave her position, the corporal and I went to them as fast as we could, but by the time we reached their position, they'd already made for high ground sir."

"Where were you then Lieutenant?"

"About sixty or seventy metres from the gate sir." He looked directly at O'Neill. " It was already heavily guarded. I ordered Aboud to try and reach the Major...I then climbed a small ridge and waited. Major Swane signalled me to try and reach the gate if possible, I told him the gate was guarded and he said I should wait as long as possible. That was when the SGC tried to reach us the first time. I heard your call sir but I could not answer, I was afraid to give away my position sir."

"You followed procedure son." Pearson assured him. " What happened after that?"

"I waited low for a few hours, then some of the gate guard moved away, they left only three sir. I fitted a silencer to my rifle, by this time it was almost dark. The first one I got when he went to relieve himself, the others would not miss him for a while. The remaining two I got in quick succession, before they could react." The young soldier stifled a yawn, which Jack and the others noticed.

"General sir, I think we should give the Lieutenant some rest." Dr Lam decided he had enough.

"I agree doctor." Jack said. " Son go get some sleep. That's an order. We can finish this later."

"Thankyou sir. But please, there is something I must tell you first."

"If it's relevant to this mission sir, perhaps we should hear it first." Pearson, was writing furiously.

"Son?"

"Yes it is General. There is a lot of in between that I should tell you, but the one thing I did not get to capture on my camera, is the most important. There was not just the one ship...I don't know how it came to be where it was, in that swamp and all. But further inland there were at least another ten ships at various stages of construction sirs...they are building them there with forced labour. Four of them at the very least appeared to be finished, or near enough."

All the others present just looked at the Lieutenant, with shocked expressions. No one said anything for quite awhile


	13. Chapter 13

Ishta's Mother ship held station about twenty kilometres out from the Ori ship, she had six fighters flying CAP in and around the area, keeping watch for any unseen nasties that might appear. That was Sam's idea, a good one it was agreed. Mac sat in the pilot's seat of the 401, one of Ishta's Jaffa pilots filled the co-pilots. He was there on Cam's insistence, two sets of hands on the wheel, were better than one, was his reasoning. The remainder of the ships occupants were seated in securely, in either the rear troop places, or the two crew places behind the pilot. Mac had a digital stopwatch stuck to the console in front of him.

Mac spoke to Jar'el, the Jaffa beside him. "Ok son, as soon as that clock reaches ten seconds, punch the hyper-drive. Sam we have got the co-ordinates correct haven't we? I don't want to think about where we might end up otherwise."

"Yes sir, it's all set. We'll be in hyper-space for less time than we can even think about anything at all."

"Right. Listen up folks. This is gonna be rough, so hang on tightly and cinch your harnesses till you can't breathe, well almost anyway."

They all followed Mac's order to the letter. One Marine's face actually started to turn coloured. Vala squeezed Daniel's hand until he grimaced. Sam and Mitchell were the only ones who seemed calm, Jonas seemed to be praying, or perhaps remembering something he should have done. Mac reached for the button on the clock, his finger hovering briefly, then he tapped it forcefully. The counter looked like it was changing numerals in slow motion. Jar'el's brow was beading with sweat, finally the ten came around and he hit the hyper-drive. "Here we..." Was all Mac managed to say.

The familiar hyper window formed in front of them and the Tornado was literally sucked in. As Sam said, it was ever so brief. Mac was concentrating on the clock, his hands gripping the controls with all his strength, which at fifty eight years, he figured wasn't worth much. Others knew he always underrated his abilities.

A loud crash and a shower of sparks in rear section heralded their arrival. The vectoring re-programming worked, just. As the 401 came in under the Ori ship's shield, the tail skimmed the surface of the shimmering field, enough to register a small hit. There was no real damage, just darkened skin on about a foot of tailplane. Mac engaged the docking bolts, flat skids that lowered and drove explosive hardened bolts into the Ori ships fuselage. White faces showed everyone's reaction and not a sound was heard, except for a couple of sputtering cables in the trunking. A quick check of diagnostics said all was well. Cam was the first to speak. "Man that was cool sir, we gotta go around and do it again."

Teal'c unstrapped himself and leaned into the forward section. "Are you having fun Colonel Mitchell?"

"Are you kidding T, that was just..."

The young Jaffa Jar'el finished it for him. "Awesome." He said, unsure if it was the right Tauri word. With that, the whole lot if them burst into laughter. Jonas wore a grin as wide as the Mississippi.

When the humour died down, Sam took control, she immediately did an atmosphere test of the Ori ship and reported to Mac. "I don't know how you knew sir, but the inside of the ship is, toxic. It's something like we've come across before."

"Such as Sam." Daniel looked at her, he sensed something as well.

"Remember when that prior held the gate open for their first supergate, he was inside a shield, which was toxic. Well this is much the same and the energy readings I'm getting are much on a frequency as then. We could be dealing with a situation much the same."

"Recommendations Sam? Oh and it was just a hunch by the way" Mac turned in his seat.

"Uh-huh." She said sceptically. "Well for starters, luckily, the toxicity doesn't seem to be as strong as back then. The main source of the higher energy readings are coming from the bridge. I think the first order of business, is to try and shut down the shields, then the ring platform. Then we should try and find out what this energy source is."

"Are there any life-signs Colonel Carter?"

"One. In the bridge Teal'c."

Cam looked to the Admiral as he left the pilot's seat. "Sir?"

"There is not a lot I can add right now Cam, until we know what's goin' on down there. Just do what you gotta do and find the threat. I'm sure there'll be one. A single life eh Sam." He thought for a moment. "I expect everyone of you, to be careful though, I'll just hang here with Jar'el until you call me. But Sam...shields first I agree. I'll beam you all down to the aft section near the power core."

The inside of the Ori ship was well lit and the moment SG1 and the troops beamed in, they all saw the same thing. Bodies here and there, no wounds, no sign of battle. A pale haze filled the spaces and the only sound was the breathing noise in the HAZMAT suits. Cam ordered a teamed patrol, so everyone went off in three's or two's. Jonas teamed up with Sam and Teal'c; naturally Vala went with Daniel and one Marine. Cam paired with a grizzled Marine veteran Sergeant he'd known for awhile, and the last was Captain Hampton with two of his men, Corporal Singer went with two others.

Searching every space took some time, when Sam had reached the shield drive, she radioed to others, that they should be as quick as possible. Though the toxic levels were low, they were still lethal. Their suits would only protect them for about an hour or so. She had Jonas monitor the conditions constantly, whilst she examined the emitter crystal console.

At first both Sam and Jonas thought it will be a simple task just to pull the crystals out, but on a valuation once she had connected her laptop, Sam figured out that it would only cause a massive feedback and probably blow them all up. There had to be a way to by-pass the circuit.

Daniel and Vala had better luck. They were in the ring platform room and Daniel saw that there was a relay running from the master crystal opening, back to a power conduit in the wall. It was fairly rudimentary, plainly just providing extra power to the rings. He was reminded of the time Jack O'Neill boosted the rings to get through the ice on Antarctica. 'Was this doing the same thing?' He thought.

Vala leaned into his arm. "Daniel why don't we just pull that cable out?"

"Hmm, yes it does seem to be as easy as that doesn't it." He reached down to where the cable went into the ring panel, his hand poised for a long moment, then he closed his eyes and yanked it out. The continuous hum for the ring platform stopped. "And presto." Vala exclaimed.

Daniel spoke into his radio. "Ah Sam, Daniel here, Vala and I have disconnected the rings."

"That's good Daniel, we're still in the shield emitter room. No luck yet. Head on out and find Cam, we'll join you as soon as we can."

She then spoke to Teal'c. "Jonas and I will work this out, go catch up with Cam." He nodded and moved out to find the others."

Cam had linked up with the other marines, all they found was more bodies. Men and women both, perhaps up to several hundred. They headed toward the bridge.

Jonas was looking at the laptop. "Sam, there..." He pointed to the screen. "You see that fluctuation there. That's an energy shift, slightly into the negative cycle. If we ramp up the power to max, then shut it down quickly, that should work. But we have to time it to the next time it drops."

"Yeah, that'll work." She watched closely at the screen and waited to see the wave drop. At that instant, she tapped her keyboard, which sent the power scale up to one hundred percent. As soon as it reached that mark, she cut the power manually from the laptop inputs. A winding down of power sounded their success. "Hey it worked." She hit Jonas not too lightly on the arm. He didn't flinch.

On the radio she called the 401. "Admiral sir we think the shields are down, but we need you to confirm for us."

"No problem Sam. I'll get right on it." He turned and spoke to Jar'el. "What do you think my young Jaffa friend?"

The young man looked out into the darkness of space, stars glittered in the distance. Far off he could see his Captain's ship. "Admiral, if we contact Captain Ishta, perhaps she can help." That gave Mac an idea, he caught sight of one of the fighters passing his field of veiw.

"Four oh one victor to closest 307, do you copy?"

The 307 replied. "This is Lieutenant Bera, what can I do for you Admiral."

"She is a good pilot sir. She is from a village near my home, I know her well." Jar'el whispered.

A little more than you're letting on son, he thought. "Bera, I want you to test the shields on this Ori ship, are you up to it?"

"Yes sir, what do you wish of me?"

"Just fire a single blast, slightly behind my ship, but not at the Ori vessel itself, just low enough to penetrate the shield."

The Jaffa 307 pilot came around hard and followed Mac's instructions, a short blast past behind the 401's tail. Low enough to have impacted to shield if it was active. Nothing, zilch, nada.

"Thankyou Bera."

"You're welcome sir." She continued her CAP.

"Sam...the shields are down!" Then he turned to Jar'el. "We've got a little while to fill in lad, now let's see what's in my bag." Mac moved down to the rear section and lifted up a rather full dive bag. He opened it and removed a laptop, the lid of which had been hand painted in camo. Looking around Mac found a power outlet and plugged the adapter in, started up the computer, then removed two usb joysticks from the bag and connected those. "C'mon kid, let's see how we can fill in the time."

The boarding party had reached the forward section of the ship, the lighting here had changed. Not too far from the bridge, the passages took on an orange luminescence. To Sam and SG1 it was very familiar. The memory of the Prior and the first Super-Gate, was not so far away. A steady hum of power could be plainly heard now in this section. Cam ordered the Marines to take up guard positions at various adjoining passageways, to cover a wider area. He didn't know why, they had not as yet encountered a single living being, but experience taught him to be prepared for anything.

SG1 moved slowly forward. Just around the corner the first portion of the bridge area came into view. Teal'c held up his fist, to halt. The rest of them bunched up near him. All of them as one simply stood there transfixed, there was nothing that unusual about the bridge of the Ori ship, apart from the fact it was configured somewhat like their own ships. That is to say, no Prior had to control the vessel, it had seating positions for various crew. Upgrades they all thought. Yet the single thing that drew their attention was a lone man, middle in his years, dark hair to his shoulders, just standing in the middle of the raised platform, near what was obviously the captain's chair; his arms outstretched, lines of visible blue power radiating out from his hands and that sickly Ori force shield surrounding him for about three metres. When SG1 drew to the edge of the visible edge of the field, he turned slowly toward them.

Teal'c raised his Zat gun toward the figure but Sam placed her hand on his arm to forestall him. "No Teal'c, I think that is just what he wants us to do. Give him more power." She clearly saw those fiery eyes they had all witnessed in Adria.

The figure, dressed in long off-white robes spoke, a sickly deep baritone. "Ah Colonel Carter, what a disappointment it is. I've come all this way and you offer me no challenge? Adria told us your kind would be difficult. Still I thought this might have been more interesting."

"Who are you, what are you doing here. If you haven't yet noticed bucko, there's nothing left of your fleet, your ship is full of dead people, we've isolated the shields and ring platform, and there is enough C4 attached to your main power source to send you back to your own galaxy. And hey folks, the guy stands here almost gloating!" Mitchell could be a very good orator when he put his mind to it.

"Colonel Mitchell, I thought you would have been much more intelligent than that. There is no explosives, I only wish you had though, it would have made my efforts much more rewarding. Quicker as well, I grow tired of this." He indicated the lines of power emanating from his hands. "Never mind though, I shall indulge your curiosity. Before you sought to destroy us previously, our child, the one you, Vala Mal Doran so kindly carried for us..." Vala looked at him with malevolent anger. "...gave us, what is that quaint expression you people use, ah yes. She gave us the head's up so to speak. We knew what you had planned, with a little help from our enemy, the Ancients to your kind. So a number of us re-took human form and entered your galaxy some time ago to formulate our final plan."

"Whoa, back up there. You said you re-took human form...if that's true then you are.."

"Ori Daniel Jackson!" Now he was gloating. "And to answer Colonel Mitchell's question, I'm here to destroy your world, in fact when I'm finished this solar system will not exist. The fleet, ah yes, a mere distraction whilst I did my work, you would be fascinated I think Colonel Carter. This planet, you name Jupiter, will be a new star, very soon!" Clasping his hands, the power momentarily withdrew, he smiled contentedly, then he spread his arms again. The blue lines of energy appeared stronger this time.

Jonas, who up until now had said nothing, but there was something here he thought might give them something to work on. He peered hard at the streams of blue light and compartmentalised it away.

To Be Continued


End file.
